Soul Flame
by The One and Only CGK
Summary: A voice tells her she needs to learn. She has dreams about a man she has never met before. She soon becomes obsessed to learn a fighting style and technique that this man knows. But can she convince him to teach her? OC.  M for violence & suggestive
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story (besides the female lead). The characters and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

Intro to me and the Main Characters: One of the main characters in this story is from Street Fighter. The other main character is a fictional person that I made up. I am not sure how long the story will take to tell but I hope you enjoy it. This story is about a girl who wants to learn how to harness her Ki into physical energy. There will be a little tiny bit of humor, some blood, and more than likely some romance.

I tried my best to make time and terminology correct, but there are still many things that I made up on my own, so, if anything seems out of place in attitude, time, or location, compared to the characters represented in games, movies or manga, it was done on purpose. I will always take constructive criticism (spelling and grammar, possible plot holes, places were there could be more plot), but please don't insult me and my work. And thank you for taking the time to read my story. This is my very first fanfic.

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Chapter 1

As far back as I can remember I have been studying some type of Martial Arts. My father started me early, around 3 years old. He was a san-dan black belt in Shorinji Kempo, a master in Muay Thai, and a black belt (American Grading) in Aikido. I used to tell him he could kick Chuck Norris's ass… this of course before good ol' Chuck was insanely popular, and didn't have 5 million "Chuck Norris Jokes." He taught me Aikido first, because of its mental awareness, and focus on Ki. Later I learned other styles, not only from him, but other Sensei as well, but I did best with Aikido.

My name is Renee. I am an American, and I formally lived in the city of Los Angeles, California. I am 25 years old. To give you a visual, I am tall, with most of my height from my long legs (about 5'10), my eyes are green with brown speckles, and long blonde hair that is usually pulled back in tight braid. On the rare occasion I let my hair down, it glows in the sunshine, and has waves like the ocean. I think my nose is too small for my face, but my lips are even, not too full, not too thin. My eyebrows arch high but are not bushy. I don't do anything to "improve" my face. I don't pluck, I don't wear makeup, and I don't shape anything to look more appealing. Even so, I have been told I am a beautiful girl and I have a beautiful body. With the years in training, I am very athletically toned, and since I tend to use each of my limbs equally, I have a good proportion when it comes to my arms and legs. Some guys are intimidated if they see I have a nicer 6 pack than they do though.

I am my fathers only daughter, his only offspring. My mother died when I was born. My father passed on a few years ago. I loved my father with everything that I am.

I am sure I will tell you more about my past at some point, but right now I want to tell you what I am doing at this moment and why. You see, I have been traveling in various places, mostly Japan, for 3 years now, and this entire time, I have been stalking a man. I am fascinated by him. His fighting style is unique. He manipulates Ki into such a form that not only can I sense it, but I can see it. I see it as blue fire, or a whirling ball of blue energy. This man is very powerful, and its power that I seek from him. I want to learn his form, his technique. I have been practicing and mimicking his moves from afar. I can only get so far this way. It will soon be time that I need him to teach me.

I have watched him over the years fight many opponents. I have seen him win, and I have seen him lose. He has been in countless tournaments, street fights, and back ally brawls. He never stays at any one place for more than a few days. He never uses his winnings for anything but nourishment, or new clothing if his gi gets too torn up. I rarely see him wear shoes, and he always, ALWAYS _walks_ everywhere. He stays outside rather than in, but does stay at an Inn when the weather is particularly harsh. He wanders from town to town, city to city, never taking the main road, but always going through forests. I have an attunement to him now. I have seen him use his Ki so much that I recognize its signature. Even if he is miles ahead of me, I can zero in on his Ki, and find him. Sometimes I think he knows I am there…

How did I learn of this man, you ask? It's pretty unbelievable actually. Shortly after my fathers death, I started having dreams. The first few nights, I saw my father, glowing in a bright yellow aura, and a voice that didn't sound like him telling me "You must learn," After a few days of this same dream, I started seeing different people, and different places. The setting is different every time, but the only thing that is common in these dreams is him, the man in the white gi.

I see him in the past, as a child, learning his abilities from his Sensei. I seem him spar with what seems to be his only friend, a man in a red gi with blonde hair. I see him grow in size and in power. I saw him fight a man almost two times as big as him, defeating him with a dark flame, scarring this man for the rest of his life. Then I see him as what I now know is the present day, wandering, alone, a vagabond, sometimes years before he visits the same place again. I see him visit the temple he trained at, his friend there at the same time. They fight, as a memorial to their fallen Sensei. A confrontation with a dark man, with a dark aura, vibrating an almost black electricity from his body. Finally, I dreamed what I could only see as a possible future. My own pain and suffering in his presence. Sometimes the pain was caused by him, sometimes caused by a man I have yet to see, with a beautiful face. The man in white is always present when I am in pain. The last dream I had was on a dark plain, almost plateau like, with a man, also with a dark aura, and that familiar voice telling me I must learn.

I had these dreams for months. They were daily, in a day dream, or nightly in a nightmare. When I closed my eyes and dozed off, I saw something new. I can't possibly recount all of them to you. Those mentioned are only the most important ones. I knew these people had to be real, and the style, the technique and the beauty of the moves to manipulate the energy, this knowledge had to be obtainable. And the dark man told me I must learn.

Because my father was present in the beginning of these dreams, I took it as a sign that this was my path to take. The presence in my mind knew when I had the resolution to sell everything I own and move to Japan. Even though it would take weeks to get my house sold, or my possessions either sold or given away to dear friends, the dreams stopped the day I decided I needed to go find this man, and learn. The voice knew I was coming, and had no other reason to give me these dreams, these visions of a possible future. I am sure if at any point I wavered on my decision, the dreams would come back.

Most of my money would be donated to my favorite local dojos and studios where I learned most of my fighting skills. I took what I could with me to get exchanged. Basically enough for food and drink. A roof over my head for a few months. I figured I would hardly have the ability to withdraw from a bank, due to many villages not having banks near. I had to keep my money on me, and hope I could stretch it as long as possible, until I could find some way to earn more. It seemed common for street fights looking for new challengers to pay the winners. I knew this was how he mostly survived. I understood that this was how I will survive.

When I got to Japan, I purchased a comfortable hikers backpack. Since the dreams told me he slept outside often, I purchased a small bed roll. My current wardrobe of jeans and a t-shirt were not going to be flexible enough for training. I purchased a few pair of flexible, but tight fitting yoga pants, a pair of soft sole kickboxing shoes, and a few tight fitting tank tops with built in sports bra. They were all blue in color, save the shoes, they were black.

I visited small towns and cities first, to see if I could see a place I saw in my dreams. Every time I found a place I recognized, I asked about the man in white. I seemed to be able to get good information out of street thugs, sometimes beating it out of them. The food cart vendors were also very helpful. Some people were scared at the mention of his description. I can only assume they were stupid enough to challenge him in a fight. The vendors always said nice things about him, though. Apparently he is a good tipper when people are nice to him. They would also tell me how he would help them if he didn't have any money, never asking for anything in return, but usually getting something. He would do many things to help, like help vendors in their fields, or fix something that was broken. They repaid him with whatever kindness they could, whether it was just a nice "Thank You," or a meal, or money. I would also have to adapt this kind of charity towards others.

He remained mysterious to these people, as they never knew his name. He never gives it freely. I gave up asking if they knew his name a long time ago. I was sure I would have to find out from the man himself.

Three months, about a dozen street fights (I won every time) and 10 towns and cities later, I finally caught up to him. He was in a small coastal city. I found him standing by an old broken dock, his eyes closed, facing towards the sea. I have kept him relatively well within my sights since then.

I learned of his patterns. By day he walked the city streets. He always seemed aware of his immediate surroundings. By night, he would go into a secluded forest area, where he would set up a camp, start a fire, and cook some food. During his wanderings in the cities, if he came across a street fight asking for a new challenger, he would drop his bag, ask some little kid to watch it for him, and then volunteer to fight. When he won, if the child watching the bag was honest, he gave him some coin, or food. I have only seen one time where his bag wasn't there when he was finished with his fight. No matter what he was calm. If he won and wasn't paid, he never complained. I overheard a child one day ask him why he wasn't mad. He replied "Anything I can do to improve myself and my fighting. The fight is everything," then nodded to the child, and he walked away. As time went on, I felt him getting stronger, and he rarely lost a fight. If he did happen to lose, he always brushed it off, and said the same thing to anyone to ask. Anything I can do to improve myself and my fighting. I myself find it hard to adapt to this way of thinking. If I don't get paid, sometimes I don't eat, and I can't help but get mad. This is a type of control he will have to teach me.

I enjoy it most when he practices by himself. Observing the street fights is rather informative, but to see him flow into each stance, generate energy, and then watch it dissipate with so much control, I don't even have the words to describe how exhilarating it is. I learn the most from him when he practices alone. He shows the dance in each step, seconds in between moves, with a steady, cool, and composed aura. He repeats the same moves over and over again till he is comfortable with his form. This makes it easier for me to copy him. At night, when he finally sleeps, I continue just a little while longer, imagining he was still flowing in his dance, myself trying to perfect this, yet I never can. When I close my eyes, I see these movements in his fights, only 10 times faster. Although I win four out of five street fights, I am still not as fast as he is. If I tried to fight him, I am sure he would beat me in seconds.

Now, three years of following him, I am sure that he has finally sensed me. A constant, foreign Ki always following him. Maybe he wasn't strong enough before to sense me. The last few months, he stops in the middle of the town, or the forest, and he listens. He never looks around to see if anyone is following him, he just feels for them. I am hoping since it is sure that he has sensed me for quite some time now that he knows I am not a threat. Soon, we will meet, and I will finally find out this man in whites name, and if he will take me as a pupil.

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Well as you can see I am not an English major, but I try my best. I promise more dialog to go with the narration in the future. First chapters can be tricky. I am still a bit nervous since I have really never written anything before! I read a lot of books so I try to think about how descriptive my favorite authors are. I am happy to say that the outline for this story is 100% done, so there will be an eventual ending :D Thank you so much! R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

Note: I am sure I don't have to explain this, but I am one of those over explainers so it's just in my nature. If you read Chapter 1 (I hope so haha) then obviously you know she is in Japan. Since all the Japanese I know is from Anime and Google Translate, all characters in this story magically know English. I will throw in some Japanese references here and there, but remember, magical English (haha). Also, my geography sucks, so I will probably never name actual towns and cities outside of the US. But isn't that the beauty of fiction? Thanks for reading.

03/25 edit: Chapter is virtually the same but added tiny details and fixed some spelling errors.

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Chapter 2

"I know you are out there."

*Well, hell* I think to myself.

I see only his back, as he is sitting near his campfire, eating his dinner of rice. He says this to me in a calm voice, not a hint of aggression.

*Time to show yourself, Renee*

I make obvious noise, jumping down from the tree branch I was perched on. I grunt unnecessarily as I land. At this point, I want him to know exactly where I am, just in case he sees me as a threat. Still, he sits and eats, never looking behind to see me walking towards him through the brush. I walk hard footed, crunching branches and leaves as I get closer.

When I get to his area, it is, as usual, clear of any debris from the forest. A small fire burns in the middle of the clearing. There is a makeshift grating, with a small pot sitting on the fire. I move to the front of him, across from the fire so I can see his face. He continues to eat his meal, and doesn't look up at me.

I lay my backpack down, and sit down in his view, the fire burning in between us. I think about how I always view him from a distance. I try to remember his face from the dreams, but it always seemed a bit blurry. But here, I can see his short dark brown hair, the red headband that is always tied above his brow, his eyes, his nose, his mouth.

*Wow, he is actually kinda handsome!*

I study the structure of his face, and can't help but to look at more features. I see his broad shoulders, and then his armless gi, probably self modified, with his muscular arms. The V neck overlap of his gi, down far enough to see part of his insanely well toned chest. He sits with his legs tucked under him, what we Americans would call "Indian Style."

We sit in complete silence, the fire crackling the only noise. It seems like hours. Even as I watch him finish his meal, he takes the time to clean up what he could, packing things away in his soft bag, and still, making no effort to communicate or make eye contact with me. I attempted to show the utmost patience.

*I will not speak unless I am spoken to. I will not speak unless I am spoken to. Come on and talk to me already* I am sure the frustration is showing slightly on my face.

He situates himself again after cleaning up, and finally he looks at me. I see no emotion in his face. He is completely and utterly neutral. His eyes however give him away but only slightly. He has kind eyes. They show a hint of curiosity. If he is angry with me for stalking him, he is showing no signs of it.

"You have been following me for quite some time." He speaks! *Finally*

*Keep your face calm, don't over do it, just keep it simple* "I have," I say to him.

"You have had many opportunities to fight me, if that was your wish. I must ask, to what purpose have you been following me as long as you have been."

"I wish to learn," I reply.

"Learn what?"

"Your fighting style."

"I do not teach."

"You have taught me so much already. Do you know how long I have been following you?" This might be a bad move. He could feel threatened by this. He can kill me if he wanted to. I can feel his power. He can probably kill me in one simple move.

He sits and stares at me for a few moments before answering. His face unchanging, his eyes still mostly neutral, with that slight tinge of curiosity. I do not feel any rage from him. I should know better, since in my observations he is always calm. I have never seem him angry.

"I have felt your presence for a little over 5 months now. At first it was a small feeling, but it has been getting stronger. You say I have taught you already? So then, what have you learned?"

"It has been more than 5 months. And what I have learned I cannot perfect as you have. I am missing something," I say. I notice his eyes have changed. I can tell he is trying to figure out if I am lying about the amount of time. There is a long pause before he speaks again.

"How long?"

"I first found you shortly after you visited Goukens Temple. I found out the name of the place from the locals. I have seen you revisit this temple three times now, and always around the same day of the year." His eyes change again. He looks at me with an eyebrow raised, his eyes a little wider now, a little more curious. I am sure he is thinking that he should have sensed me before, especially if it has been this long. To confirm my truth, I tell him more. "That is the only place I have seen you revisit yearly. Some towns you have only been to once, and some places you revisit after years. I have followed you across the sea when you traveled to China and Thailand. I am actually glad you didn't spend a lot of time there, because I hated it there myself. I have watched you fight many times, but that is not how I have learned as much as I know at the moment."

"I was too weak to sense you."

"I was probably too weak to be sensed. But I know you are much stronger now. I would like to hope that I am too. But there is still so much I don't know."

*I can't give him too much information. If he asks a question I will answer, but I will not freely give him information* My question for him is burning me. *Forget that I want you to teach me, what the hell is your name?*

"Show me what you have learned."

He gets up, dusts his clothes off for a moment, walks over to a clearing away from the fire, and gets into his fighting stance.

*Oh god, please don't kill me* I am terrible hiding myself from him right now. My eyes say it to him. I am showing fear.

He shifts his position to defensive. He senses my fear. This calms me a bit. He just wants to see what I know.

I stand up and get into a fighting stance. I take some time to breathe for a moment. I know that I have to do this to show him what I know. Maybe it will show him my dedication, and he will teach me.

I rush him. As fast as I can, I throw punches in every direction. I want to show that I am not holding back so I attempt to hit him in any vulnerable area. I try to punch, jab and kick. I don't land a single blow.

*He is so fast, he either dodges or blocks everything. I am not looking good.*

I pause for a moment to gather my Ki. I hold my arms to my sides, flexing, my fits clenched, my face screwed up, my mind as clear as I can get it, and I gather energy from my core. I run towards him and jump in the air, and attempt my sloppy version of a spinning kick I have seen him do many times before. My Ki doesn't even glow in the slightest in my flurry of kicks. I pause again to gather more Ki energy from my center, and try the energy ball. I know I have much to learn with this move. I was able to generate a spark at least. I threw it at him, and it hit his arm, and it made a pathetic *bzzt* sound. It sounded like I drug my feet across a carpet with socks on and touched him. I am sure he barely felt it. I am not even going to try the uppercut.

*Go ahead and laugh at me now*

I stop trying to hit him after my embarrassing spark. I stand there, my appearance is of defeat.

His face is still neutral. He shows no signs of wanting to laugh at me for my performance. He doesn't say anything.

"That is as much as I have learned from observation. I am not as fast as you. I can't seem to generate the energy that you do. I need to learn the basics."

"Some things you cannot learn from seeing. Gathering Ki is not easy to do. But your form is good, and you flow into each move very gracefully. I can tell that you watch me when I do my Kata's. When you master your Ki, you will be faster."

"I need you to teach me."

"I do not teach. I believe I have yet to master it myself."

"You can still teach me. You can show me how to start."

I try not to show frustration. His face doesn't change.

"I have been sought after before, by another girl that wished to learn. It was recent, so you should know already that she gave up trying to convince me to teach her."

I remembered her. She was a school girl who witnessed him fight. His opponent was tougher than most, so he used all of his moves. The spinning kick, the energy blast, and finally the flaming blue uppercut.

"She was young, and she only gave up because she couldn't follow you outside the city. I am sure if she didn't have school she would have pursued you."

"Even if she did, it would have been a lost cause. Go home to where ever you came from. There is no point in following me any longer."

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Finishing note: I realize as I finish this chapter that I am still on page one of my outline, and only on section 3. While I am glad I have everything all thought out, I realize that this might be a long story. I hope you all enjoy it. As always, constructive criticism is welcome, and please R&R.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology is owned by Capcom.

3/25 edit: corrected some spelling and grammar errors. Also added small bits of detail here and there. Not much though really.

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Chapter 3

I said nothing to him after he told me to go home. I came into this understanding that he would most likely try to reject me. Of course, I don't care that he did reject me because, unlike the school girl, I am not going to give up. He will soon realize that he is not getting rid of me. Maybe he will not teach me, but I can watch him much closer now. I might be able to see or sense something that I couldn't before from the distance. I can expect him to get annoyed or frustrated by my constant presence, and I can only hope that he doesn't get so unnerved by this to do something drastic.

After a few hours of meditation, he unrolled his bedroll, got ready for bed (quite a show actually, since he sleeps topless and with him up close and personal, he is way more sexy!) and went to sleep. He didn't seem to care that I was still there. I decided to do the same, and unhooked my roll from my backpack, took it out of its plastic cover, and unrolled it on the ground. I brushed out my braid and lay down. Apparently I was tired, because as soon as I laid my head down, I fell asleep.

When following him before, I usually tried to wake up before him. He had a tendency to wake up as soon as the sun started peaking over the horizon. Days that I overslept, I would find him miles ahead. I always caught up, but it was nicer when I didn't have to.

I was successful in my sleep schedule today, and woke up just before dawn. The sky is turning its lighter shade of blue at the mountain tops, but still dark and full of stars in the sky above me. He is still sleeping, but I knew he wouldn't be for long. I went through my morning routine of brushing my teeth and brushing, then braiding my long hair.

The fire was still burning, but only a small flame remained. I grab a few more logs and place them on the fire so it could grow, and then I can make a hot breakfast. I grab a wire rack I purchased months ago from my backpack, and place it on the rocks surrounding the fire. Also in my wonderfully large backpack, I grab a small skillet and place it on the rack, above the flames. Yesterday I was able to purchase a few strips of bacon and a couple of eggs. The bacon was in a cold pack, so it wouldn't spoil over night, and the eggs were in a hard plastic container that I packed with some tissues so they wouldn't break. I began cooking my breakfast.

I know he was awake longer than he seemed. I have no idea what his thoughts this morning are. Maybe he was thinking, *Why is she still here.* I hope he likes bacon. Hopefully it wasn't only Americans that thought bacon should be in its own food group.

As I cook the eggs in the bacon grease, he finally sits up, and crosses and folds his legs under him.

"Bacon?" I hold up a piece, offering it to him. He took the piece and ate it. Since I had more than enough for myself, I offer him another piece and he took that one as well.

"Thank you." He says, in a monotone voice. I am sure he _meant_ to be sincere.

"Do you want the other egg? I am fine with just one," I ask him.

He nods and says thank you again.

"I normally just wait for it to cool in the skillet since I don't really have any..." I don't finish my sentence, since he starts rummaging through his soft pack, and gives me a bowl. "Well that will work." I say. There goes my plan of getting closer to him to share the skillet.

Even though he had his egg, he didn't begin eating, but instead waited for mine to cool enough that I could eat it. I take out my awesome Swiss Army knife, complete with fork and spoon! The egg, as always, lacks spice since that was a delicacy I couldn't afford, but at least the bacon grease made it more flavorful.

He seems happy with his unexpected breakfast of bacon and eggs. I take this opportunity to ask my burning question, even though my mind was still trying to say to me *don't speak to him until you are spoken to.*

"What's your name?"

He gives me an almost quizzical look. "You have followed me for 3 years and you don't know my name?"

I chuckle. "I gave up asking people if they knew your name YEARS ago. No one ever knew."

"Hardly anyone ever asks. I usually don't give it unless I have to. Street vendors don't ask unless you are a regular customer."

"That doesn't answer my question, though. It would be nice to have a name to go with the face."

"What have you been calling me?"

"The man in white. Since that is rather broad, I would sometimes further explain, the man in the white karate gi. To some people, they were fearful, others, grateful. I assumed it was the difference between those you have beaten in a fight, and those you have helped."

"Somewhat true. A real fighter that loses will only learn from the experience. They will never be fearful of an opponent, regardless of a previous outcome with that person. The fearful ones are usually the ones that try to take advantage of you."

"You are still avoiding my question."

"What's your name?"

I am surprised. Is this genuine interest, or is he being a jackass. I decide to be a little more evasive. "You can't avoid my question by asking me the same question."

He sits there and stares at me. The usual lack of expression on his face. I try an ultimatum. "If I tell you, will you tell me yours?"

Blank. Motionless. *Jerk*

"Renee," I say, a sour expression on my face.

Still blank. Still motionless. He is toying with me. I imagine in my own mind that he is sticking his tongue out at me and saying *haha, I don't have to tell you anything!* Then I image myself stealing his non-existent wallet with his non-existent ID and saying *haha! Your name is...*

"Ryu."

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Ending note: If it wasn't obvious you knew who this guy was right? Too bad I couldn't have kept it a mystery from when the website wanted me to chose a character, haha! R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

3/25 edit: Added a lot more detail to this chapter, it might be worth it to re-read if you have read it before.

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Chapter 4

He is my unwilling companion. He is also my unwilling Sensei. I do not ask him again to train me. Instead I intend to do as I did before, only this time at a closer range. I hope studying him now will help me discover more.

He isn't a talker. It's been days since we have said anything to each other. He so far makes no attempt to lose me as we wander.

At night, when he does kata, he attempts to change his form mid-move into another flow, to see if I stumble. I have seen each flow before, so it only takes a few seconds to correct myself into the new flow. The choreography of the dance between us is perfect, and simultaneous. I understand too well the amount of time he spends in each position. I wonder if it frustrates him.

We go to another city, looking at food carts, and listening to the surroundings. He is kind to everyone he meets, and always says his 'pleases and thank you's.' If someone needs help with something, he is always more than happy to assist them in what they need. I, of course offer my assistance as well. Mostly I get the brush off from people, since they seem to think a woman can't possibly be that strong to help them do the heavy lifting. I have been able to get some looks of astonishment as I help anyway, even if someone insists they don't need my help, as I lift something heavy. Ryu and I helped someone move large sacks of grain from their weekly delivery. I watched for a moment as Ryu would take one sack over his shoulder, and then next two young men try the same thing and end up hurting themselves. The two men had to carry one sack between the two of them. I loved the look on their faces as they were coming back to get more, and myself hauling a sack over my shoulder, same as Ryu, with no strain showing in my face or on my body. The vendor rewarded both Ryu and I with a refill of our small sacks that usually had our rice in them.

If he finishes his tasks before me, he makes no attempt to wait for me. I am sure he knows by now I can always find him, even so. So far no street fights in this city, so nothing exciting is happening yet.

Days continue to go by, then weeks. He has more expression on his face when we practice. We learn to share what we have. Many times now I have purchased some other type of food that happens to go well with his. He mostly eats rice though. Everything goes good with rice. I see his appreciative look often now, for the change in flavor.

At least now he is a little more talkative. Even though he talks, our conversations are bland, or the same. A million times have I heard "You will get faster when you learn to manage your Ki," or "You will always learn something from a fight, no matter how simple." I feel like saying "Dude, I get it!" He knows it frustrates me. I have caught him smiling a few times. He enjoys it.

Sometimes I can't help but stare at him. I catch myself mostly at night, when he is getting ready for bed, as he takes off his belt, headband, and shirt of his gi. As I watch, my mind goes through its almost automatic imagination of an intimate encounter. Its never anything too serious. Sometimes I think of expression and passion in his face. I imagine his eyes getting deep and seductive. If I am feeling particularly cheesy, I imagine he kisses me. In the mornings, when he comes back from morning business, he is normally shirtless, his hair wet from washing in the nearby stream, or lake, or any other body of water we happen to be near. The water dripping from each strand, and then flowing down his well toned muscles of his biceps, or his chest, his amazing six-pack abs. I usually have no idea how long I have been staring at him.

He never says anything even if he does notice. But I notice things too. He acts like he isn't paying attention to me when I brush my hair, but I can see his pupils in his eyes looking out of the corner of his eyes while he is turned sideways. A few times I have seen him actually stare at my hands as I work at braiding my hair. He doesn't seem to be staring at anything else really, just my hands. Never once have I caught him glancing at my boobs, which to be honest, I do flaunt around sometimes when I am just wearing a sports bra instead of the tank top.

I have noticed that lately he is starting to choose his battles. Before, he would fight anyone that would challenge him. Now, he waits for a moment. I can tell he is assessing their skills and sensing their energy. I am getting better at doing this too. Many times now, he will refuse a fight, and instead look to me. It is his way of saying that I can handle it. I am unsure if he does this for me so I can get money or if he wants me to learn. Or both. He waits now, for me to finish the fight. He waits for me. It's sweet.

After I win a fight, I can see in his eyes that he wants to comment on my technique. I am sure there are things that I do very sloppily, and I can see the frustration in him, wanting to say what I need to change. I hope that one of these days he will actually pop and tell me something, anything that I need to change so I can improve. It is a game of patience, and I have all the time in the world to spend with him until he loses his.

More time goes by. We overhear about an upcoming underground tournament from the street thugs. I have found he always enters these when they are available. The cash winnings are usually pretty high, even if it's only a few fighters. Not that he enters for the cash. Sometimes he says "One fight. One more step on the path to becoming a true warrior." I have actually started writing down Ryu quotes, since he rarely talks anyway. But as for tournaments, I have never entered one myself. This one will be my first.

I know he doesn't think I am prepared enough for this because he finally asks me to spar with him. I assume he is going to try to persuade me to drop out by kicking my ass. He never says this to me but actions speak louder than words.

For the 5th time, he knocks me to the ground. I can tell he is holding back. I start to have doubts myself. *Maybe I am not strong enough yet to do this. I might end up getting myself killed.*

"What happened to you always saying to never hold back? You are holding back." I say to him.

"If we have a real battle, I will not hold back. You are getting faster, you know. You are managing your Ki a lot better than before," he says to me.

"Honestly, I don't know how. I still can't make more than a spark."

*Here it comes… My favorite phrase…*

"You will get better when you learn to manage your Ki."

"And exactly how am I going to learn to manage my Ki." I feel like sticking my tongue out at him but I don't.

It's as close as I have come to asking him to train me. He chooses not to answer me. We continue to spar, and he continues to knock me down. At least it doesn't hurt that bad.

"You have a strong will to fight in your eyes. It may come to you on its own."

"But there is something missing. There is something I am doing wrong, and I don't know what to do to correct it. But you do. It doesn't matter. Maybe I will find it during the tournament."

"I hope you know what you are doing," he says to me.

"Maybe it will be you and I in the end tomorrow."

"There are going to be some very skilled fighters."

"You don't think I will make it to the end?"

He looks at me. His eyes show a little concern.

*Aw, maybe he cares*

"Maybe it will be a good learning experience for you."

"As in, maybe I will get my ass kicked and decide I don't want to do this?" *Do I really want to do this?*

He stays silent, but his expression doesn't change.

"Maybe I will do better than you expect."

He raises one eyebrow.

Mockingly I say "I will always learn something from a fight." *No matter how much the other guy beats my ass. I just hope I can live through it to learn the lesson*

* * *

Note: Originally, this chapter was going to be longer, because I was going to include the tournament. But as I got halfway through the tournament, I noticed that the flow from this part to the next just needed a bigger break. This is a short chapter, but I think the next one will probably be significantly larger. Thanks! R&R


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

3/25 edit: corrected some grammar errors and added tiny bits of detail. Nothing too drastic.

* * *

Chapter 5

It was a small tournament in an abandoned warehouse. Only 8 fighters. Seven total matches today. A decent cash winning that will last me a few months if I decided to forgo street fighting for a while. Of course, I wouldn't do that since I need the experience.

We are all assigned numbers, I guess to keep those of us who wish to stay anonymous… anonymous.

I take a small tour of the warehouse to assess my surroundings and get a feel for the energy. I find only a few of the other people here registered to fight. I sense a lot of power in some. Ryu by far the strongest that I can sense so far. My odds are looking good from what I can see at this moment. I at least hope that I can win my first battle. How else can I prove that I have the potential to learn his techniques?

As I wander, I find that there is a man that keeps staring at me. He wears a white mask that fully covers his face. It has nothing on it, aside from the obvious two eye holes. He has long light brown hair, reaching almost past his butt. It's almost as long as my hair. He is also wearing a braid, but much looser than mine. There is a long claw on his left hand. He has a purple snake tattoo starting on his arm, curling around his bicep, and then continuing on to his bare chest and around his stomach. His pants are baggy and purple with a yellow stripe. He must really like purple. He resonates with physical power, but I don't sense a lot of Ki energy from him. Of course, that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to use his weapon. He is a little on the thin side, but still has definition in his muscles. What he lacks in Ki be probably makes up for in speed. I wonder what he looks like behind the mask. He is either vain, or hideous. Either way I am still curious.

The announcer tells everyone to get ready, and then proceeds to call out two numbers. The masked man fights first. His rival is another man in a long sleeved, dark blue uniform. Before he reaches the fighting circle, his friend yells out "Just don't hit him in the face!" The man throws his friend a thumbs up and winks. "I got this, man," he replies.

As I suspected, Tattoo man is insanely fast. He strides from the left and to the right, all around his opponent. Dark blue man doesn't seem to be able to keep up. He frantically tries to punch and kick at Tattoo man, but isn't able to make any contact. Tattoo man rushes to his left, clipping him on the side with his clawed hand. The man uncontrollably spins but regains his balance. Blood starts to drip from the new laceration on his arm. He looks at the masked man, stunned.

"Aaaah, the smell of fresh blood," the tattooed man says in a slightly Spanish accent. "But… it's not enough yet." His eyes behind the mask go wide, and he laughs manically. This guy is bat shit crazy.

His opponent is starting to look scared. The masked man screams and yells like a madman as he rushes again. He sounds like he should be committed. Yea, totally fricken nuts. He spins like a figure skater, his clawed hand extended. The man attempts to dodge the claw. Blood spatters on the ground. The dark blue shirt is ripped open, and three large gashes show in his chest. The material from his once nice uniform slowly getting stained with his blood, as it pools and drips down his chest. He places a hand on his chest and looks down. He staggers. He begins to slouch. Tattoo man walks away and starts laughing at him. He looks up to the ceiling and places a hand on his chest, and laughs even louder. "Ah ha ha ha. HA HA HA HA HA HA." It was like he was told a really good joke.

He stops laughing suddenly, and then powerfully turns and uses a roundhouse kick. The blow makes contact on the injured mans neck. I don't hear it break at least. The man slams hard on the ground, bouncing off at least once before settling.

"The winner is… number 3!" The announcer says.

The crowd is chanting "Vega, Vega, Vega!" Well apparently this guy has a following. What a bunch of bloodthirsty fans.

Vega yells and pumps his fist in the air. He then takes off his mask. "A beautiful victory!"

I gasp. I think I have seen him before. Could this be the man from my dreams of the future? He has a beautiful face. My memory is blurry. This can't be him. If it is, this may not end very well for me. When I had that dream, I just remember pain.

The beaten man is taken out of the fighting ring. I hear him say, "But I didn't hit his face." His friend replies "That's why you lived."

The announcer calls out the next two numbers fighters. One of them is me. The other is number 1. I know for sure I will win this. If Vega is in fact the beautiful man from my dreams, then I am going to have to face him.

"All right! Girl fight!" I hear someone in the crowd say. I thought he was referring just to me, but I see the person stepping into the ring is female as well.

She has red, raggedy hair and her karate gi looks 3 sizes too big for her. She only looks to be about 4'10. I wonder if whoever sets up these tournaments has any age restrictions. This poor girl looks too young to be here. It's obvious to me by her appearance that she is a child. What a bunch of sick bastards, letting a kid fight. My conscience tells me not to hurt a child. I can only hope to do what I can to disable her without inflicting any permanent damage.

"Fight!"

We circle each other in our fighting stances. I am sure she is doing the same thing as I am. I look for any weakness in her stance. I try to sense her power. I try to think of a way to disable her without hurting her. I have only one idea but, it would have to be perfect, and I would have to get within striking range.

I dart towards her and stop halfway to see her reaction. She steps back. She is avoiding me. I hope this means she is afraid of me. She might be easier to beat if she fears me. Maybe she is still looking for a weakness in my stance.

"Get on with it!" someone yells from the crowd.

"If you are just gonna stand around, you should at least take off your clothes!" someone else yells. *Perverts*

She looks nervous. Or she wants me to think she is. *Well, someone has to strike first, it might as well be me* I think to myself.

I rush her again, but this time I don't stop. She attempts to back away. I lunge and try to jab her in the neck with my left hand, but she skillfully evades and shifts to the left. She counters with a shin kick to my left side. I meet her shin with my left elbow as I try to block the kick. As my elbow makes contact, I jab again this time with my right hand. I successfully hit her pressure point in the neck, where the carotid artery is located. Hopefully it was a strong enough hit to make her pass out.

She backs away, her hand going to her neck to feel for damage. She stumbles for a moment. I can sense her blood pressure rising, which was the entire point. If it gets high enough she should pass out. Kind of like a Vulcan Neck Pinch. She is young enough that this shouldn't do any permanent damage. She looks at me, glossy eyed. Her hands go to her temples, trying to relieve the pressure. I see the veins in her forehead protrude. Finally, she falls to her knees, and then her body falls forward to the ground.

"Our winner!" the announcer says. There isn't much cheering from the crowd. The horny guy yells "That was lame! You should still take off your shirt!" Why is it boobs or blood when it comes to guys?

Before I leave the ring, I walk over to her and kneel down and check her pulse. Her veins slowly go back to normal as her pressure returns to a safe level. Her heartbeat goes back to a normal pace. She is going to be fine. I hope she learns her lesson and doesn't try this again, at least until she is older.

I leave the ring so it can be cleaned up for the next fight. I find Ryu and stand next to him. I try to find some look of approval. He is unfortunately the master of blank and neutral expressions when he wants to be. He continues to stare ahead with his arms crossed over his chest, and doesn't look at me. Maybe he doesn't want any one here to think he is a pushover.

"You handled that well," he compliments, while still staring ahead.

"I didn't have a choice."

"You could have taken advantage of her obvious weakness by knocking her out, instead of the more difficult move of having to be precise in hitting a pressure point"

"I am not a fan of hurting a kid, even if they are in over their head."

He looks at me, and raises an eyebrow. "It's regrettable that the rest of the fighters here don't take consideration for those that are…" he pauses and raises one eyebrow "in over their heads."

I scowl. "I will be fine." My thoughts however linger back to the dream I had so many years ago. I have no idea how bad Vega will hurt me, I just know he will.

The next two numbers that were called step up to the ring. Ryu is not one of them. It looks like he will be in the last battle in this first round of fights.

The next fight starts. One man is obviously a kick boxer, by the way he holds his legs in position. The other one looks to be using Taekwondo. The man that is a kick boxer is very good at avoiding the attacks of his opponent. The other man lunges to get into position to throw the kick boxer, but he quickly darts to the left. The man stumbles, almost falling, as he expected to make contact. Again and again, he attempts to kick the kick boxer, but fails each time. He hasn't even needed to block an attack, he just moves out of the way. An arrogant smile on his face the entire time. He isn't even breaking a sweat.

The crowd begins yelling. Although a lot of action is occurring on the stage, no contact is being made. I can tell the man is getting tired. Maybe that was the kick boxers plan. Finally, as the man tries a chambered punch, he leaves himself wide open on the right, trying to put every bit of power into his punch. The kick boxer jumps into the man, his right knee slamming into his jaw. I can hear the jaw break. Like it were slow motion, I can see the mans eyes roll back into his head. A mixture of blood and teeth fly out of his mouth. The man falls to the ground, his face a bloody mess. Blood continues to gush from his mouth and nose. It pools beneath his head. I can't sense his energy. I am not sure if he is even alive. If he isn't, I don't want to know.

With 4 of us left, I know who Ryu has to fight.

They give us a break before the next round of battles start. Ryu sees the concern on my face that I am trying to hide. He is good at reading my face. He walks over to me and offers me a cup of water.

"You can forfeit. You don't have to fight," he says, but his face doesn't show concern.

"And then be thought of as a coward? No way."

"Would you rather be a coward, or dead?"

*Neither* I think to myself. "And here I thought you would be telling me never to give up."

"When you know you are outmatched, and have the opportunity to get stronger, and see that fight another day, you should take that opportunity."

"I have never seen _you_ refuse to fight."

"I either know I can win, or know I am fighting someone honorable."

I think back to times when I had seen him lose. Even if he was beaten, he bows to the victor, and in turn the victor bows back. Sometimes I seem them walk away together, discussing their fight, or laughing and smiling about it. I have never seen him lose to someone that has tried to kill him.

I recall the old dream again. From the fight I have already witnessed, I know that Vega is merciless. "What if you do fight someone dishonorable, and know you can't win?" I ask.

"I haven't found myself in that situation yet. And I certainly wouldn't volunteer for it unless it's for some type of greater good. There is no greater good in this for you. These men are not honorable."

"Then I guess I am going to hope that I fight an honorable man." *Or hope that somehow the dream isn't all that it seems, and I am able to defeat the beautiful man.*

"And if you don't?"

I sigh. "I hope that I can keep myself from getting killed."

* * *

Note: Fight scenes are not that easy to write… I don't know a whole lot about martial arts, but try to match as best as I can with the styles I am trying to interpret. I thought I was halfway through this tourney before but then I got so many more ideas. I have probably revised this 3 times to add more description. It may get revised more. I have a feeling the next chapter will conclude this tourney though. Maybe... R&R


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

* * *

Chapter 6

Even though I remember the pain I felt in the dream, I still don't know the outcome. I don't know if, despite the agony, I still pull through and manage to beat him. I haven't encountered anything else that has happened in the supposed future of the dream, assuming the visions of the events of future happened in order. Doesn't that mean that I will live through this so those things can still happen? Or does it mean that I have somehow altered my future by my actions, and those things will never happen. Should I have tried harder to get Ryu to teach me? Is it possible there is something I could have done to get him to agree to help me? I should have told him about the dream. There is no use telling him now though.

The next round will either be me or Ryu. I wish I could tell him things that I have been holding back. He may not think so, but he has taught me so much. He has been extremely patient with me, even at first when he really _didn't_ want me around. I figured there would be plenty of time for me to thank him for everything. I don't have enough time anymore. One of us is next, and that blows my opportunity to have any last minute conversation with him. I don't want my gratitude conveyed as a simple "Thank you." I wanted to show him somehow. You know what they say, actions speak louder than words. Either way, unless I somehow pull through this, I don't have that chance anymore. No… I will have to think positive. I will not die today. I will have the chance to show him how I feel.

They call the two numbers for the next fight to step in the ring. It's me and Vega. *I will pull through this. I will live.*

"Ah, it isn't often that I see someone almost as beautiful as I am." Vega says to me, as we step into the circle. "I always admire someone else's beauty. I promise not to hurt your face, my lovely."

"You should take off your mask, so I can hurt yours," I reply, a reluctant smile on my face. *Shit, do I really want to piss him off? I am so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid*

"Oh, my lovely, you don't want to do that. It makes me angry. When I am angry, I am even more brutal. I would hate to damage you… Too much." His eyes flash wide behind the mask. I imagine there is a wide grin on his face behind the disguise.

"Liar."

"Come now. When we finish with this I will take you to dinner. I will show you I mean no harm. We will have a good time."

"I'm sorry, but I decline. I am not in to pretty guys. Pretty guys like you usually end up being gay anyway. And really, what is with the purple?"

He chuckles. I might have just insulted him. *I am scoring sooooo many "I want to live" points right now, aren't I.*

"It's a shame then, my lovely. I hope your blood tastes as sweet as my victory."

The fight starts. He wastes no time. Thankfully, he avoids using his clawed hand. I do my best to duck his attacks. He attempts to sweep my feet from me, but I kneel and brace for it so I don't fall over. Before I can get back into proper stance, he successfully lands a spinning backfist to my face. There is so much power behind it that it takes me from my feet and causes me to spin. I land hard on the ground. I get up as fast as I can, kicking myself up.

I spit out the blood in my mouth from the cut I know have on the inside of my cheek. The blow must have caused my teeth to slice it open.. "I knew you were a liar." I wipe the dripping red ooze coming from my mouth with my arm. My cheek is throbbing from where his knuckles made contact. I can feel it swelling up already. It's gonna be one hell of a bruise.

"That was for insulting me. I owe you one more, and then I promise I will leave your face alone."

"Another lie."

"If you keep accusing me of that, my dove, I will feel insulted again," he threatens. "I may do something that you cannot recover from very easily. You wouldn't want a scar on your exquisite face, would you?" He makes a taunting slash motion with his clawed hand.

He doesn't give me time to reply. He leaps for me again. He is too fast. His internal remote control is on Fast Forward. I seem to be stuck on Frame by Frame. He pauses in front of me for a split second and then does a back flip kick. His feet make contact with my hands as I attempt to block it from hitting my chin. Even though I block, I hear my wrist shatter as the force breaks it, and I am still sent flying vertically through the air. I am able to flip and correct myself and land on my feet. My left hand is hardly useable now. I can't feel my fingers.

"I am so sorry to pick on you. But, what do you say… I like you so much, I let you give up now. But you must tell me you are sorry."

"Is that all I need to say? How about, I am sorry I haven't had the chance to kick you in the balls yet? Or I am sorry you are such a narcissist who has nothing to be narcissistic about? How about... Oh go to hell, you crazy asshole!" I couldn't help it. I guess I want to die.

He waves a finger at me. "Tisk, tisk. That was your last chance. It is time to end this. I am sorry, dove."

He jumps high in the air and comes at me with what I can only describe as a swan dive position, his arms extended like he is flying. I have no idea what he is trying to do. He leaves his head vulnerable. I take this opportunity to strike.

"Senpuu kyaku!" I yell as I use the spinning kick I have learned from watching Ryu with as much Ki as I could possibly muster. The first kick takes off his mask. It is sent flying through the air. The subsequent kicks land on his face. The final kick cracks his cheek bone, and he lands forcefully on the ground, face first. He screams in a bloody rage, and backs away from me. There is a new cut beneath his left eye, welling up with blood. His cheek begins to swell and turn red and purple.

His hand goes to his face to feel the damage I just inflicted on him. He looks at his hand, seeing the new blood. "You stupid bitch!" he shouts at me. "You touched my face! Don't you know what happens when you touch my face? I warned you!"

"Don't like the smell of your own blood? And I was just making your face a little purple for you… I thought you liked purple?" I am going to die anyway. I might as well humiliate him.

"I WILL _TASTE_ YOUR BLOOD!" he yells, and continues to scream as he comes at me with the clawed hand. I have to get out of the way. Even if I block it's going to result in a flesh wound. I dart to the right to avoid him, as he is hysterically slashing his way towards me.

*I made it out of the way in time* I think to myself. But then I see him standing there, his claw is covered in blood. It's rolling off of each claw blade, dripping to the floor. I have a sudden pain in my abdomen. Instinctively I put my hand on my stomach. I feel a waterfall, pouring over my hand. The metallic smell surrounding my nose. I put pressure with my hand to try and slow the bleeding, but the tissue feels too soft. I am too afraid to look down. Afraid that I will see my guts spilling out of my gashes. Afraid of taking my eyes off him in case he moves in for the kill. I hear the blood continuing to pour to the ground.

I am getting dizzy. It's getting hard to focus on my surroundings. I want to vomit from the smell. Clenching my stomach muscles only make the pain worse. Still I hold it in.

Vega lifts his clawed hand to his mouth, sticks out his tongue, and licks one of the blades. "Mmmmm, yes, just as sweet as I thought. And now you die."

He charges for me again. His next attack is obvious, he is going to pierce me through my heart. I have to move. I need to live just a little while longer. The room is spinning, but I somehow manage to move just enough that he stabs me through my shoulder. The impact is so forceful that we both fall down, him falling on top of me. I am on my back. His claw is stuck to the ground, still going through my shoulder. He straddles me. His eyes wide open. His breathing heavy. A wide grin on his face. He makes a grunting laugh with every breath. I can see my blood in his mouth. There is blood spray on his face, and a smear of red from his cheek where I landed my one successful blow.

He leans in close to me, almost nose to nose, and licks my face, starting from my chin and ending at my cheek. Apparently not satisfied with the amount of blood on my face, he licks my lip, which is cracked and bloody. As if I am not already humiliated enough, he kisses me. I try to turn my head away to get away from the kiss. He pushes harder into the kiss, tearing the cuts on my lip even farther. Now excited from finding more of the sweet and salty liquid, he sucks on my lip, like a hungry vampire. Satisfied with his fill, he releases from his savage kiss.

"Mmmm, was it good for you?" He smiles at me. "It could have been so much sweeter, if you had just kept your mouth shut."

He braces his hand on the ground next to my head and then finally pulls the claw out of the ground and out of my shoulder. The hook of his claw takes bits of my flesh and blood with it. More red splatters on his face. I scream out in pain. It hurts so god damn much. The scream reverberates through the room. I feel the warmth of my life stream pooling behind my shoulder. I feel the warm fluid from the wound on my stomach still cascading down my sides. I have lost so much blood. My left hand is numb from the broken bones and broken nerves. I can't move my right arm at all. The muscles are damaged too severely. My feet start to tingle as I lose feeling there too. I am starting to feel cold. Even if I did somehow live through this, how could I ever possibly recover?

He won't miss this time when he pierces me. I can hardly move. I am completely broken. I have nothing more that I can do.

Either everything is going in slow motion, or he pauses before he makes the killing strike. I find the energy to turn my head to the side. I don't want to watch him kill me. There has to be something else to look at as I die, not this maniacs blistered face. I try to find Ryu. There he is. He looks angry. I wonder if he is angry at me for being so weak, for giving up. Or for getting myself into this mess in the first place. I see him start to move into his stance for the energy blast. There are blue orbs that start to gather in his palms as he moves his hands to his side. I hear Vega scream as he moves in to eviscerate me. He is going to kill me now. Everything is blurry.

I think I hear Ryu's voice. It sounds distorted. Slow. "Shhhhhiiiiinnn-kkkkuuuuu HHAAADDOOOKKEEENNN"

All I see now is blue light. It's warm. I no longer feel the weight of Vega on top of me. The pain seems to be dissipating. I must be dead now. They say you see a light when you die.

The blue light fades. Pressure, all of a sudden on my stomach. It hurts. Not dead yet. Getting cold again. A hand goes under my head and forces me to look up at the ceiling. Except there is no ceiling. Just a face. At least it's a nice face to look at. This is a good image to die to. I have to say I am sorry. I have to tell him how much he has meant to me these past few months. I have so much to say, and so little time and energy to say it. I open my mouth to speak.

"I…. n-need…t-t-to …."

He cuts me off. "Don't talk. You will have all the time in the world to tell me. Right now you just need to focus. Look at me Renee. Focus."

I start to cry. My tears are warm as they slide down my temples into my hair. I am trying to focus but I can't. I just want to die. There is so much pain. I just want it to stop.

His voice doesn't sound worried. I am sure he is trying to convince me that I am not going to die. But his eyes tell me a different story. "I know it hurts. But you can get through this. You are strong. And you are stubborn. How long did you follow me? And I didn't even know? That takes talent. You are getting stronger, you just don't know it yet."

His eyes look sad. He knows I am dying. Even he knows he can't save me. He caresses my cheek. He wipes away the tears streaming down my bloody face. I wish he would kiss me, despite the mess I am in. My last kiss should be with someone I enjoy, not some psychotic asshole. I start to shiver uncontrollably. My eyes start to roll back.

"You aren't listening to me, Renee. Look at me. Listen to me." He is starting to yell at me. I try to focus, and look at him again. He slaps my face gently. I don't even feel it. His gi is turning red. I feel warm again. The blue light is back, but this time it is surrounding him. It's surrounding me. The pain isn't as bad. I just want to sleep now…

*I am sorry, Ryu*

* * *

Note: OMG Cliffhanger ending! I enjoyed writing this part, even though its kinda sad. Sooo much more to come though. R&R.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would donate a lot more than I can now to Japan. I pray they get through this disaster. After all, there are so many things that I love that are from there, like Anime, Manga and many video games that I play. My thoughts are with you Japan!

Note: There are a lot of breaks in this chapter because I didn't want to make them individual chapters because they would be too short.

3/25 edit: grammar errors corrected.

* * *

Chapter 7

*Beep*… … … … … … *Beep* … … … … … … *Beep*

A lot of garbled noise.

It's dark. I can't see or feel anything. I can't find my father. He is supposed to be here. Why isn't he here?

_"… … … Renee… … … ca-… hear…?" _

That isn't dad. Sounds like a woman. Who the hell is that? I never met my mom. *Is that you mom?*

_"… … can hear… … want… … … … move a finger or a toe… … anything? … … not responsive…"_

I don't have any fricken fingers or toes. I am pretty sure Vega cut them all off. And my arms. And my legs. I can't feel anything to move! Why is it important? I am freaking dead. What the hell is going on?

The stupid voice is still talking to me. I can't focus on it. I can't always hear it. What's with all the beeping? More than one voice now. I can't make out all the sentences… I don't know if I am even making out any real words.

_"… … … …CPR on her three … … … … … heart stopped … … … defib … … … surgery was … … … might be brain damage… … … will never be able to… …can't find… … Family?"_

_*_Wait, what? Never be able to what? What does a dead person need to be able to do anyway? What can't I do again? Wait, go back! What were you saying?* I try to center in on the sounds. The words and sentences become clearer now.

_"I don't know."_

_"You said you have known her how long?"_

_"A few months."_

_"She never told you of any family?"_

_"I never asked."_

_"Do you know where she is from? She doesn't have any ID on her."_

_"I just know her name."_

_"How can you spend that much time with someone and not know anything about them? Didn't you ever talk to her?"_

_"Our conversations were never personal. I never asked her questions, she never asked me questions."_

_"That has to be the strangest thing I have ever heard in my life."_

I don't know who is talking. I don't really know where I am. I am trying to go to my family, because they are dead. I am dead! My father should be here. He should be waiting for me. I may have never known her, but, my mother should be here too. What did I do wrong? Am I in Hell? Is that why they aren't here? I died and went to Hell? It doesn't feel hot. I thought Hell was supposed to be hot. I can't feel a damn thing. Am I a ghost?

* * *

I don't know how much time passes. It could be minutes, it could be hours. Days. Weeks. I don't know. I know that I am alive, and in a hospital. I can hear the beeping of the heart monitor sometimes. I still have a hard time focusing on anything but sounds. I still can't feel anything. Bits and pieces of what happened to me start coming back.

_So much blood._

He saved me. Before Vega could kill me he blasted him. I hope Vega is dead. Actually, no. I hope he lived but his face is deformed and he is ugly. To match his ugly soul.

*_"You aren't listening to me, Renee. Look at me. Listen to me." _

_"I am sorry, Ryu."*_

Did I actually say it? I thought I only said it in my head…

His face was the last thing I saw, glowing in a blue flame. It surrounded me. Made me warm. I closed my eyes after that, but I think I still heard him. I try to remember more.

_*"You will be sorry if you die on me. I was just getting used to you being around all the time. If you die, you are going to regret it."*_

I don't see how threatening me is going to help anything here. I will have to ask him some time how exactly I am going to regret dying. If I can ever wake up…

_*"I don't care if I interfered. I couldn't just stand there and watch him kill her. He won, he did enough damage. I don't care about the rules. Fine, disqualify me! I really could care less."*_

Oh. I made him lose the tournament. He never got to fight the kick boxer guy. Well Ryu would have kicked his ass anyway.

* * *

"I have a feeling you can hear me. Nothing has changed of your prognosis since we came here 3 days ago. You are in a coma. You are hooked up to all sorts of machines and you can't breathe on your own yet. You almost didn't make it. I had to step in and save you. I didn't kill him. Sometimes I wish I had the strength to do that. But that is a dark path. I couldn't sink to his level. If you ever wake up, I will tell you all about it.

They say your surgery went well. Your shoulder was easy enough to repair and patch up. Your stomach however, not so much. But they did a good job, I think. It's going to be a while before they can take out the staples and the stitches. And right now you wouldn't be able to process solid foods, but, lucky for you, you can't really eat solid foods they way you are right now, can you. You are going to have scars for the rest of your life they say. But that is ok, because even the best martial artist in the world has scars from previous battles."

This does not sound like Ryu at all. I mean I know it's him, but he is actually _talking_. Why does it take me almost dying for him to speak more than one sentence to me? And he is cracking bad jokes. I have hardly ever heard the man laugh, let alone crack a joke.

"I can't stay and wait for you much longer."

I hear him leave. I want to talk to him so bad. I want to see him.

I have no fricken idea how time passes. Does he come back 5 minutes later or 5 days later?

I can start to feel my limbs. Everything feels so stiff though. I am sure if I ever wake up I will need physical therapy.

I can feel him holding my hand. It's sweet of him.

"They took the breathing tube out today. It's a good sign you are breathing on your own now. You have a risk of having brain damage, but, I think you will be fine, because you can hear me now. I know you want to talk to me, but its better this way."

I wonder how the hell he knows so much. What's better this way? Can he sense my consciousness being aware, but my body to weak to let me wake up?

"I am leaving tomorrow. I have to continue my journey. I know that you will wake up soon, but you need to take it easy. You have to wait for everything to heal so you can get back to normal. If you try too soon to move like you used to, you will just end up hurting yourself.

I think you should go home and find someone that can take care of you. I am sure you have friends. Unless you are as annoying to them as you are to me." He chuckles. He squeezes my hand, gently.

"But there is one more thing I have to tell you."

He sounds sad now. Is this the part where he tells me I will never walk again? Or whatever it is I will never do again.

"Even when you do get better, whether you decide to go home, or tough it out here, I don't want you to follow me again. Just leave me alone. You lived this time, but you may not next time. Being around me will only get you killed. Don't follow me. Do you hear me? Live your life. Away from me."

I want to cry. Even though our time spent together was all training, and nothing personal, I still feel like there are other ways I am drawn to him. Maybe he knows that already. I hope that it's because he cares and not because he truly wishes to be alone.

I feel him kiss me on my forehead. He puts his hand on my cheek and caresses it with his thumb.

"I am sorry we never got to know each other. In another lifetime, ok?"

I feel his hand slip away from my face.

* * *

I finally am able to open my eyes a few days later. It takes a while for me to focus my eyes. Everything was blurry. My eyelids still feel heavy. I can't seem to keep them open.

I go in and out of consciousness for a few days. The nurses are at least aware that I am trying to wake up. I am more responsive to their tests.

"Squeeze my hand, honey."

I squeeze.

"That's good. Can you wiggle your big toe?"

I feel like that part in Kill Bill where The Bride is telling herself to wiggle her big toe while she is in the back of Bucks truck. I know my toe is there. I can feel it. I try to wiggle it but nothing happens. Damn.

"Its ok, honey. One thing at a time. Can you open your eyes for me?"

I open my eyes. The focus is starting to get better. Things are starting to get clearer. At least my nurse doesn't look like Buck.

"You are doing good. Can you talk to me?"

I try to speak, but it comes out in a mumble.

"It's ok. It will all come back to you soon. We are going to start physical therapy soon. Even if you can't move your legs for a while, we are going to start making you do some small exercises that will help in the long run. We can't work too hard because you still have stitches and staples in your stomach. Do you remember what happened?"

I try to talk again but it just comes out as a grunt. I try to nod my head.

"That's good. It's a good sign that you remember. You probably don't have any brain damage. You are going to pull through this just fine."

* * *

I dream about what Ryu said to be before he left. Not to follow him. I start to think it might be a good idea. Maybe I should go back home. I should have never wavered.

It's like the moment I started to feel like I couldn't do what I came here to do, the dark man invaded me again. I dreamed again of the dark shadow figure, in the burning purple aura. "You must learn!" he says to me again.

"Why must I learn?" I ask shadow man.

I drift into another vision. The dark plain again. I am crying. I am kneeling on the ground. I look at my hands. There is blood all over them and somehow I know it's not mine. I look down to my knees. A pool of blood beneath them as well. I hear a sinister laugh in the distance. There is a body lying in front of me but I can't see who it is.

Do I kill someone? Am I supposed to learn because I am to kill someone, or because I need prevent someone from being killed? Whose blood was it?

I don't even know anymore what it is I am supposed to learn.

* * *

They took the staples out today. I refuse to look at myself right now. The nurse asks me if I want a mirror but, I always refuse. I know I will have to face it at some point, but I don't want to do it right now.

I can talk to the nurse now. Thought process is a little slow at first but its getting better. I want to ask her what it is I will never do again, but I am too scared to know. So far the things I was most fearful of losing seem to work. I can see just fine. My spine isn't broken.

The physical therapy hurts a little but I get through it. They have to bend my knees and stretch my legs for me. If I try on my own, all it does is strain my ab muscles, which are still very shredded, and pain shoots through my entire body. It's a little embarrassing, having them pick up my leg, and put it down, and rinse, and repeat, but these people have had to do this countless times for others. I can move my arms, although the right shoulder is very stiff and painful. My left arm is fine, but I have a cast on my wrist from the break. She says the break isn't so bad, and with the pins they used to set the bones, it should heal just fine. I can't wait to get this stupid cast off. I have had an itch under there and it annoys the hell out of me.

They start me little by little on solid food. I drank orange juice for what seemed like days before I graduated to jello, and orange juice. Hospital jello tastes like crap by the way. It tastes like caster oil, only in a jelly instead of an oily liquid, with a hint of whatever the flavor of the day is. They are all awful so it doesn't matter. After jello is vegetable soup, with hardly any vegetables. And more jello. Don't forget the orange juice. After this I am never going to eat jello again. I got to eat some type of flaky white fish that they called tuna, but it sure as hell didn't taste like tuna. Now I have the normal bad hospital food. Salisbury steak is another item on the menu I do not recommend, and will probably never want to eat again.

* * *

It has been a month now, here at the hospital. My cast isn't off yet but it's now a smaller one that just goes halfway up my forearm. I can walk around, but it isn't completely normal. The physical therapist says it's going to be a while before my stomach gets used to my legs again. My abdominal muscles got a bit rearranged when Vega tried to disembowel me. He says it will be another month before I should even try martial arts again. I have a feeling I will try sooner than that. My arm is no longer stiff and feels almost completely normal again.

I am doing so well, in fact, that it's actually time for me to leave. They said I can go to any hospital to get my cast off in about two weeks, but they "recommend" I come back here once a week for physical therapy and that I should "take it easy." I have my own physical therapy in mind. I will be doing a lot of walking, because I have to find Ryu again.

I put on one of my extra blue tank tops and my yoga pants. I lost my shoes because they were too much of a mess and had to be thrown out, so the nurse got me flip flops. She got me a jacket too since it is starting to getting cold outside. I look in the mirror as I am getting dressed, and I see the three scars on my right shoulder. A small, discolored, raised patch of skin. A hole for each blade, vertical. He went right through, so there are three more on the other side, on my back. They aren't as red as they were before, but still in the process of healing. I hate them. I don't want to look at them. I put on the jacket to cover it up.

I lift my tank top to look at my scars on my belly again. It looks like Wolverine from the X-men did a berserker barrage on my stomach. The scars from the slashes are uneven. I have three slashes going diagonal to the left, and another three in the other direction. It looks like a misshapen X. There are also other random slashes here and there but they don't appear to be as deep. I don't even remember him hitting me so much before I got out of the way. I wonder how the hell I was even put back together. He had to have hit everything in that area, my stomach, my liver, my intestines. Parts of my skin next to the scars bulge out like there are marbles behind it. I want to cry as I look at myself. It's so awful I want to be sick.

The nurse comes in and sees the somber look on my face. I am actually going to miss her. She was really nice and understanding the entire time.

"It won't look like that forever, honey. I mean, the scars, those will always be there, but the bulgy parts, those will go away eventually, as long as you work at it. When it heals enough you can go back to doing your exercises. It should all smooth out and go back to a normal, flat stomach. It just might take a while, but I promise it will be better. I recommend you take some vitamin E daily, along with the antibiotics, and get an ointment with vitamin E as well. The healing might go a bit faster if you do that."

*Well, that's a relief.*

"Looks like you got everything, so its time to check you out, sweetie! Aren't you excited?"

She gives me the paperwork at the desk. I expect to find a ginormous bill that will take me the rest of my life, the rest of any possible future children's lives, and the rest of my children's children's lives, to pay off.

"It says it's already paid?" I ask the nurse, astonished.

"That it is."

"Who paid it?"

"Let me see here. Someone by the name of... Ken Masters."

I give her a confused look. "Who is that?"

"Said he was a friend of the man that brought you in here. Said he owed him a favor. Oh I almost forgot, he sent you some money too. It should be in an envelope in your backpack. He figured when you got out of here you will need new clothes."

A friend of Ryu's. The only person I know if that could possibly be a friend of Ryu's is the man in the red gi, from the vision I saw years ago of Gouken's Temple.

"Hmm. Well, thank you, Ken Masters."

* * *

Note: sorry about the brokenness of the chapter. I really didn't want to get insanely long and drawn out in her recovery either. You know what word I hate? Consciousness. Because no matter how many times I try to spell it, it is never right, and even when it gets auto corrected, it still looks wrong. Its one of those words that if you say it over and over again it sounds odd. Kinda like Fork. If I say FORK like 20 times, it feels like I am speaking a foreign language. I am insane, I know. Hope I can get the next chapter out soon. Thanks for reading! FORK!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. I wish I did because then I would be filthy rich.

Note: a few mid chapter breaks.

* * *

Chapter 8

There was a part of me that wanted to listen to Ryu, when he said not to follow him anymore. The thing is, I don't know if I can live without seeing him again. Not only that, but I am not sure if I can live with hearing the Shadow Man yell at me. It seems like any time my determination alters, the voice echoes in my brain. It even happens now when I am awake. Either that or I am going crazy.

I don't immediately go after Ryu. He was, of course, correct in my needing new clothing. While I still have a few extra tank tops, and a few pairs of yoga pants, I decide that I can't wear those anymore. At least not the tank tops. I don't want to look at my scars if I don't have to. I would all too much love to forget that whole ordeal. It's bad enough that my aching body and having to take care of my healing wounds are going to be reminding me for a while.

I buy another set of somewhat tight fitting royal blue shirts, but with long sleeves that flare out at the shoulder. They also have a V neck but it stops right as it meets my sports bra. It will be comfortable enough when I start practicing again. I am probably going to keep my yoga pants, but for now I am going to wear workout pants that have a drawstring, just in case the elastic from the yoga pants irritates my belly. Of course, I buy another pair of soft sole shoes. I also buy, as the nurse recommended, vitamin E pills and ointment. The ointment is a bit odd to use since it has a consistency like vaseline, but at least it smells good.

I know where he is, but I know its going to take me a long while to find him. I can only walk for a few hours before I have to take a break, and my pace is very tortoise like. Sometimes I have to stop and camp early, just to get some sleep. I never knew that the pain and discomfort would be so exhausting. I try to eat constantly, since it keeps me energized, but I can't consume as much in one sitting as I used to. My muscles have already deteriorated enough from lack of constant use, and if I don't eat enough, it's just going to get worse. I can't start working on my arms till I get this stupid cast off, otherwise I will be uneven. My legs, for now, get enough exercise with the walking.

* * *

I have traveled about 100 miles these past 2 weeks. It is a slow pace but soon it will start to get easier to travel a longer distance. I am still pretty far away from Ryu. He is constantly moving himself, but if he is still following the same patterns as before, he should be staying at cities and towns for at least a day before he begins moving again. I wonder if he knows I am following him again. Can he sense me from this far away as much as I can sense him? It used to be that I could only sense him if he was within a city, maybe a 20 mile radius. I feel like now, even if he were across the ocean, I could still find him. I think it is more of an emotional bond now, instead of just finding his Ki. If he has the same bond with me…

The cast is finally off my wrist. Movement is very stiff. I keep scratching any itch I get, because now I have the freedom to do so. I tried to do a pushup but my wrist is still sensitive to the pressure so I am just going to have to work on my grip before I can try that again. I buy a stress ball to help with that.

When I went to the doctor that took off my cast, he also checked my other injuries. My scabs are almost completely gone. He says it was a good recommendation from my nurse to get the ointment. The bulges are also reducing in size as well. I can't wait to have a normal flat stomach again, even if it is riddled with scars. He says even when all the scabs are off, I still shouldn't try over exercising because it could still tear my surgery repaired organs and muscles. I want to listen to him, I really do. I probably won't.

I want to send that nurse a gift for the recommendation. I still have enough money to last me a while longer, so I buy her a stuffed cat toy, and a "Thank You" card. She had said she owned a black cat and loved it to death, and also collected other kitty cat things, so maybe she will like this. I sent her the gift at the next post office I saw.

The money that was left for me is a life saver. Not that I mean to, but my spending habits have been very typical for a female lately. I am not buying a new something for every store I see but, when you have the extra cash, sometimes things that aren't very necessary or happen to be considered a luxury are very rewarding. For example, I have stayed at the Inn's more often than I ever have in the past 3 years, for the simple fact that it has hot water and a bath tub. There is nothing like a hot soak to ease your weary bones. I even bought bubble bath. I have also purchased a new jacket since it is starting to snow, and a beanie to keep my head warm. I have to watch it though, because my backpack is only so big, and at some point, I won't be able to keep things I purchase.

* * *

Another 2 weeks. Almost 200 miles this time. I am getting closer, I can feel it. It's only a matter of time now.

The stress ball worked wonders on my wrist. I can do pushups again. It doesn't hurt at all anymore. Finally I can get my arms back to their previous condition. I am working on other things too, but gradually. I haven't been able to successfully do sit ups yet, so instead I do my kata, but and an easy pace which sometimes looks a little more graceful that usual. I still can't move too fast, but the stances will at least work my legs and abs. My legs remember the movements like they were yesterday, but my stomach still needs more time. There is still some soreness.

Practicing in the cold is also bothersome. I was used to it before because my movements generated so much heat that I was actually sweating. When I followed Ryu before, I would often sleep outside in the cold, as he did, but would have my nightly practice and more often than not, a fire to keep me warm while I sleep. Now, I want to stay at the Inn's to take advantage of warm bathes and fireplaces. Going out to gather wood and start a fire can be tiresome. I need to get back to my previous condition, and I hope I can get to that point soon.

* * *

I keep dreaming about the tournament. Flashbacks of what happened, and where I went wrong. Obviously I wasn't as fast as him, and that would be something that I need to work on. I keep replaying Vega coming at me, his claw slashing back and forth in the air as he rushes towards me, and how I realize I need to move as fast as I can. It just didn't seem humanly possible that he made contact with me, let alone had enough time to slash me several times, as I tried to evade.

Sometimes this dream turns into a nightmare. I am hounded with a voice in my head that screams at me "WHY DID YOU GIVE UP SO EASILY!" Sometimes it's my dad's voice. Sometimes it's my own voice. Did I give up easily? I hardly see how I could have done better after his attack with the claw. Had I tried to fight him, my guts surely would have spilled out of me before I could have even tried, and I surely would have died before he could even stab me through my shoulder… or kiss me.

If Vega is still alive, he will pay for that kiss. If he is capable of forcing a kiss like that he is capable of things that are even more abasing. Things that are more barbarous. I feel more violated from that kiss than anything else. I know how that might sound, but it's my dignity we are talking about.

I also dream about the last thing I saw, Ryu's face, staring down at me, trying to keep me alive. I still wonder if it was the blue flaming aura that kept me alive just a little longer, so he could get me the help I needed.

It was also that moment that I realized that I cared for him more than I wanted to admit. It seems odd, because we hardly exchange words, and we are never close to each other, despite some of my attempts. My logical mind doesn't understand it, but it's my soul that is burning. I sometimes think it was the fire in myself that seems to be blazing for him that kept me alive.

But for now, I know it is mostly one sided. I know there is care and concern from him, but I highly doubt it's any more than what a normal person would have for a companion or a friend.

* * *

I know he can sense me. I think he has stayed at this town as long as he has on purpose. I was about 50 miles out when I noticed he stopped moving completely. It has taken me 2 days to get here, and he is still here. His Ki feels different. I wonder if it is because he is angry I am following him again. I will soon find out.

I detect as soon as I get into the town that he starts moving again. At least he isn't too far ahead. I remember this place. A short distance ahead is the place where we first met, face to face. I am pretty sure he is going there.

I find him, of course, in the clearing, his campfire flaring in the middle. He is eating his usual bowl of rice. I notice he has another bowl already made, sitting next to him. He definitely knew I was coming tonight.

I walk over to him, as I did before, placing my pack down across from the fire. He is silent. He doesn't look at me. He continues to eat his rice, seeming to eat one grain at a time with his chopsticks. Is he trying to buy more time for the inevitable conversation?

I don't know why but I want to cry. I wasn't expecting a warm greeting, or a hug or a kiss. I know that isn't him. Maybe I want to cry because I haven't cried since. The last time I remember crying is when he was holding me in the ring. I know I have wanted to cry several times, but I never did.

I want to sit, but I don't want to look like a pregnant lady at full term trying to sit on the floor, because that is what it looks like sometimes. I don't want to show any weakness in front of him. But it is possible that is what he is waiting for. He still won't look at me.

I slowly drop to my knees and sit on my heels for a moment. I brace my hands on the ground, and slowly take my feet from under me so I can sit normally with my legs crossed. I had to take my eyes from him to do this, so I was surprised to see that when I looked back to him, he was finally looking at me. He had his usual lack of expression on his face. His eyes say something else to me.

His eyes say "I am sorry."

My face is easier to read, and full of my gloomy expression. My eyebrows raise and bunch towards the middle, with my eyes saying "It's not your fault"

His face becomes even harder, but his eyes change to "I should have tried harder to stop you." His eyebrows lower, in an almost enraged expression, his jaw flexing as his mouth moves to a harder line in his lips.

I look down at the ground to try and gain composure. I look back up, mimicking his hard and determined look on my face which said to him "Nothing would have stopped me."

His face relaxes to its normal state.

"I told you not to follow me again. I thought you heard me."

"I did."

"Why then?"

"You said I was stubborn."

He sighs. "That I did."

He grabs the extra bowl of rice and gets up so he can give it to me. He hands it to me with one hand, and I use both of mine to hold the bowl from the bottom. He unexpectedly touches my hand with his other hand, and it lingers there for a moment. He then releases and goes back to his side of the fire, where he sits back down.

I eat what I can, which still isn't much. He waits for me to finish before he talks again.

"What do you expect out of this."

"My expectations have not changed."

"I am not going to train you. Especially now."

"Why, when your training could have actually helped me out while I was getting cut to pieces."

I am not normally one to try a guilt trip, and I almost regret saying it as soon as it came out. I know it stung. He doesn't reply to me.

"I didn't want to be alone." I say after a few seconds of silence.

"You could have gone home. Don't you have friends? Family?"

"I have some friends. No family. I haven't been home in a very long time."

"Now is as good a time as any."

"I'm not going home."

"I am not going to show you anything that you don't already know."

I exhale forcefully, clearly showing my frustration. "I don't care. There is nothing for me at home. This is home now."

I can tell he wants to say something. I can tell he wants to yell at me or scold me. He never loses control, and he is on the brink of it now.

Instead, he calmly says "I am not going to stop you."

Note: I know wounds don't heal that fast but I didn't want her recovery to be drawn out. Then again, how else do our little Street Fighter guys fight 12 people before they get to the last boss? No wait! The antibiotics were laced in Senzu bean! (Senzu beans are from DBZ haha)


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would totally be changing the look of Dante in the Devil May Cry reboot. White hair people, Dante has LONG WHITE HAIR! /rant over.

* * *

Chapter 9

It doesn't take long for him to accept my company again. At first, he didn't show consideration for me, and my obvious sluggishness. He does his nightly kata's in the same pace as always, while I try to practice the same motions. Even so, I finish each move at my slower pace. He would sit down and get ready for bed long before I would be finished. He never even watched or commented. Now, I am getting better, but still slow, but now he waits for me, or repeats moves again instead of moving on to the next form.

He never asks how I feel, or how I am recovering. I sometimes wish he would, but then I am afraid to talk about it anyway. I don't want to cry in front of him. I don't want to show that I am weak. I want to show him I can be strong again. But at least when I have trouble with something, I can see his concern in his eyes.

We don't talk as we used to, even about fighting. I almost miss his broken record quotes of "what we learn from fights" and "blah blah blah managing your Ki" and the hundreds of other things he always repeated to me, daily.

Despite his, even less now, lack of character, I still find myself drawn to him. It is the little bits of care and concern that get me thinking about him. He never had to slow down his practice, he doesn't have to show the concern in his eyes, but he does, and he does for me. I never see him treat anyone else the same way. I can't say that I love him. But in all honesty I don't know exactly how I feel. I would never even know how to tell him. Sometimes I want to.

It's been about another month now. It is starting to warm up, which makes practicing easier. I am almost as fast as I used to be. My stomach is its normal flat self again, aside from the scars. They are still raised, and whiter than the rest of the skin on my stomach. I hate looking at them, so I try to avoid it. At night, when I lay down, I catch myself tracing them from one end to another. I need to stop doing that. All it does is make me remember, and then I dream about it again.

When I start to think about that whole nightmare, I try to shift my thoughts to something more pleasant. Of course, the usual thought is him. I am back to my thoughts of intimate encounters with Mr. Lone Warrior. I can't help it anyway, because he is always shirtless at night and I can't seem to stop staring. It only amplifies my growing feelings for him. I want to tell him something. I still haven't thanked him for helping me, in the little ways he does.

My emotions get the best of me. It's either the thoughts I have or the feelings I have that make me do it. I am crazy for doing this but I can't control myself, because I am not sure exactly how he will react when he sees me, as he is at the lake, probably swimming, even though it's still a bit chilly and the water has to be freezing. He probably doesn't have any clothes on either. Maybe it will cool me off too. I need a good cooling off.

I know he senses me coming. I can feel the tension, even though he isn't even near me.

"Renee, what are you doing?"

"I thought swimming was a great idea too. Plus my hair is just a mess and probably needs to be washed."

"Well, can you wait for me to get out… You know… over there." He points over to some tall ferns.

"And what is it that you are afraid of? I am an adult. So are you."

Before he can protest, I take off my shirt, leaving only my sports bra underneath. I don't make eye contact as I undress because I don't want to see his reaction at the moment. I undo the drawstring to my pants and slide them off my legs. I stop there, all of a sudden feeling embarrassed that I am stripping naked in front of him. So much for being an adult.

I finally look at him, but notice that he isn't looking at my face. He is looking at my stomach. The scars. Instinctively I cover my stomach with my arms, trying to hide them.

"Don't."

I drop my hands to my sides. He swims over to get out of the lake, still looking at my body. When he gets out, I turn my head, so I don't see anything, saving him any possible embarrassment. I hear him put his pants on and then walk over to me.

He is standing right in front of me. He never gets this close. He takes his hand and touches my three scars on my shoulder. He traces each one with his fingers, starting from the one at the top, and slowly moves down to the next one, and then the bottom one. He reaches around my arm to my back, stepping a little closer to me, and traces with the same motions on the scars on my back, from top to bottom. I can feel the heat from his body, steaming off of his chest and his shoulders. I look at his eyes, which are almost heartbreaking, and his lips are parted slightly, in a tender expression.

He takes a step back, and then starts to trace my scars on my stomach. He traces each line from start to finish. I can feel each fingertip, gliding across the raised lines, in gentle strokes. He must have been feeling each one for at least five minutes, going back and forth, retracing each blemished mark. Finally, he takes his left hand and rests it on my shoulder, where the scars are. He takes his other hand and rests it on my stomach. He looks at me, with a remorseful expression on his face.

"I'm sorry."

It seems that this was all I was waiting for. My eyes start to well up with tears. My eyebrows bunch and my bottom lip starts to quiver. Before I start crying, he grabs me and holds me close, hugging me, his arms around me. I do the same, and wrap my arms around him, and start crying into his naked chest. My tears streaming down my face, then onto him, then down his chest.

We don't say anything to each other during this. The only thing heard is my sobbing. He lets me finish when I am ready. Even as the gasps and shudders of my weeping start to come to an end, a part of me wishes to keep going, just to keep him in my embrace. His body is warm, and my bare skin touching his feels so soothing.

Finally, when I am done, he cups my face with his hands and wipes away any moisture leftover on my cheeks with his thumbs. My heart begins to race. My face starts to flush, as it warms from the adrenaline. I can feel his too, also picking up in pace. My mind is racing with thoughts of him kissing me. I close my eyes and lean in closer to him…

And then he lets go of my face, gently, and takes a step back. I open my eyes, confused that nothing happened. His face returns to its normal state of expression, or lack there of.

"Take as much time as you need here. I am going to go back and start making something to eat."

He grabs his shirt which is hanging from a nearby tree, and then walks towards camp.

I stand there, dumbfounded by what just happened. *We had an emotional moment there, you can't just walk away! What the hell? You had my face in your hands, and your face was centimeters away from mine, and you walk away. What kind of man are you?* I frown, frustrated and angry, as I grab my clothes and put them back on.

*Think you can walk away from me like that. We are going to discuss this whether you like it or not!*

I stomp back to camp. He is kneeling by the fire, cooking our dinner, not paying attention to me. I lean on one leg and cross my arms over my chest and raise one eyebrow at him. I wait for him to look at me. Finally he does after a few minutes.

"What?"

"You know what."

He shakes his head and goes back to cooking dinner, stirring it around when it doesn't need to be stirred. Clearly wanting to avoid talking to me.

"What the hell was that?" I yell, uncrossing my arms and waiving them to the side.

He stands up and looks at me with his usual hard expression.

"I can't."

"Can't _what_?" I say aggressively.

For the first time, he snaps at me. "I can't be that person you want me to be. I have been alone almost my entire life. And then all of a sudden you come along. No, not like the others, they all go away. But you, you never go away. You never leave me alone. Haven't you ever thought that maybe I like being by myself? You are a distraction!"

I am taken aback. I went from frustrated and angry to shocked and a little depressed. Did he just tell me he doesn't want me around?

It didn't make sense. There have been so many situations where he showed interest in my companionship. I think back to my almost dying moment

_*"I…. n-need…t-t-to …."_

_ "Don't talk. You will have all the time in the world to tell me. Right now you just need to focus. Look at me Renee. Focus."*_

Even afterwards, when I lost conciseness, I still heard him.

_*"You will be sorry if you die on me. I was just getting used to you being around all the time. If you die, you are going to regret it."*_

I decide to use this as my ammo.

"No, I don't think you like being alone. I remember some things you said. Like having time to tell you. You threatening me if I die. If you like being alone, you wouldn't have said those things."

"Forget what I said. At that time I couldn't handle someone dying in my hands. And now you live. You shouldn't take that for granted. Go home, Renee. Go back to where ever you came from, and leave me in peace."

He takes his eyes off of me, and sits back down. He forcefully spoons in his meal into his bowl and begins eating, never glancing at me in the slightest. I still stand there, surprised and dejected. I need time to gather my thoughts, to figure out what to do. I need to get away for a moment, and do what he asks, leave him in peace.

I walk away from him and go into the forest and find a tall tree. He doesn't watch me leave the clearing. I climb the tree to a high level and find a thick arm that I can sit on and lean my back against the trunk. I settle in to my spot and try to get comfortable. I can still see the glow of the campfire, but I can't see the clearing at all. I close my eyes so I can think about what I need to do now.

* * *

Note: Aw how sad.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would own a few fancy cars… like a Maybach 57… ooooooh.

Note: Can't seem to get away from chapter breaks now. Oh well.

* * *

Chapter 10

Now is as good a time as any to tell him how I feel. Maybe it will sway his feelings for me. Maybe after hearing me he will want me around.

I don't know how long I have been up here in this tree but I know it's been a while. At least a few hours. I climb down the tree and head back over to the camp. Ryu is still awake. He has probably been thinking about our situation as much as I have. I hope he has reconsidered. I stand in my usual spot, across the fire.

"I don't care if you don't want to hear it, I need to tell you some things," I say to him with a stern voice.

He looks up at me, and then stands and then crosses his arms over his chest, waiting.

"I wanted to thank you. You may not think you need it, but the list of things to thank you for have been growing. So… thank you for teaching me, when you didn't really mean to teach. Because of you, I have learned so much about myself and what I can do, and all by watching you. Thank you for being patient with me, when you could have left me at any time but chose to stay instead. And also for slowing down when I fell behind." I start to well up again, my tears almost breaking in their pools to drip down my face. My voice becomes choppy and uneven. "Thank you for saving my life. That bastard had every right to kill me. I know there was no rule against it. He defeated me, even though it was dirty, and dishonorable. He should have killed me, but you didn't let that happen. You lost because of me. Because you wanted to save my life, when you didn't have to. And thank you… for making me feel the way I do for you. By your actions, you have shown that you care, don't tell me that you don't or never did. But it makes me feel the way I do."

I start crying uncontrollably now. I close my eyes and start to wipe my face with my arm. All of a sudden he grabs my arm. I didn't even hear him walk over to me. He pushes my arm down away from my face gently, and places his hands there again, like before, at the lake. Cupping my face, and wiping the tears away, while looking into my eyes. His face doesn't say anything to me. It's still expressionless. I don't care. His face is so close again. This time I take the initiative and lean forward to kiss him. He doesn't back away from me.

It feels like I am kissing stone at first. He doesn't attempt to kiss me back, but then also doesn't try to stop me. I lean in deeper in hopes to get more of a reaction. Something sparks in him and he wraps his arms around me, pulling me closer into him, and into the kiss. He opens his mouth slightly and passionately kisses me back. I open my mouth even further, and taste his lips with my tongue. I nibble on his wet bottom lip, but then go back for more, embracing his kiss. He is breathing heavily, his heart is pounding, and I am enjoying every second of it.

Unexpectedly, he breaks off from the kiss, places his hands on my shoulders and pushes me away at arms length, his hands remaining on my shoulders. He looks at me, the passion dying from his eyes.

"I can't do this."

I plead with him. "Why?"

"I don't feel the same way. I don't feel the same way you do. Nothing is ever going to happen between us. I am meant to be alone! I think you should leave. If you don't leave, I will."

He releases me from his grasp, and turns his back to me. He rushes to start packing his things. He never looks back at me. I stand there awestruck, but silent, and my salty tears stream down my face. He never looks back, as he leaves the clearing and goes into the forest.

* * *

I wake up. I am still in the tree. I fell asleep. It was all a dream. What I said, that kiss… It was all a dream. I look down to the clearing. I can still see the glow of the fire, which means he is still there.

Even if I had planned everything that happened in that dream, there is no way I can do it now. If everything that I have seen tonight is true, he really doesn't want me around, and nothing will ever happen between us. I fear the dream is a vision of the future, like the countless ones I have had before. If this is really what is going to happen if I confront him, I know that I really do have to leave him alone.

I can't face him to tell him my parting words. I am a coward. I get down from my tree and go to the clearing. He is sleeping on his bedroll. I quietly take out a piece of paper and a pencil from my backpack. I write him a letter. Before I leave it for him, I gather my things, and get ready to set out. I have no idea where I will go, I just know that I will respect his wishes. I leave the note under his bedroll, but sticking out halfway, so he can easily see it when he wakes up.

I hope he knows what he wants.

"Goodbye, Ryu."

* * *

RYU POV

I wake up slightly before dawn. Immediately I can tell that Renee is gone, and not in the immediate vicinity. I open my eyes and look around, just in case my senses are deceiving me. None of her things are here. I don't sense her in the tree anymore. She is really gone.

I sit up as I prepare to investigate the tree she was in, to make sure the reason I don't sense her is because she fell off the tree and died, when I see a piece of paper tucked under my bed. I pick it up, unfold it and read:

_ If you really don't want me here with you, then that is fine. I will leave. I am sorry if I have been an inconvenience and a distraction to you all this time. I am not trying to blame you, but you have been giving me mixed signals about whether or not you wanted my company. I realize that maybe you did that for my personal benefit to ease my own loneliness instead of yours. Thank you for doing all that you have done for me, whether it was by reluctance, or concern. I will forever remember what I have learned from you, and hope that soon, I will know my path. I wish you good luck in your future endeavors. _

_ Renee _

I think back to when she first made herself known to me. She was a nuisance. At first. Any normal person would think she is crazy for stalking someone, let alone for 3 years. But the more I thought about it, the more it impressed me. For her to be following me undetected for so long… It shows great potential. I don't know if I ever wanted to train her, considering that I don't think I am a master myself. But she showed persistence like no other I have met, and I found myself testing her. I was always amazed, and I still am to this day, that she learned what she could from just watching me.

I showed her eventually that I could be a real human being, and show compassion and expression. I know what I am, I know what I look like to her. I didn't have to show her, but I did. Was it because I enjoyed her company?

And when she almost died, I just about lost it. At first I imagined what it would be like without her. It made me feel… depressed… because she may never be around me again. She was always bright and positive when she didn't need to be. She has made me laugh and smile, and probably never knew that she could do it because I would hide my expressions from her. After a week with her at the hospital in the coma, I had to leave. Nothing good would happen if I stayed, so I thought. I had to continue my journey, to learn, and to fight. The fight is everything. I have to continue to fight, until there is nothing left for me to learn. But there is still a long journey ahead of me before I am a true warrior.

I remember I thought about her often. For the first time in my life, I had a difficult time focusing on my fighting skills. And when she started following me again, even though I told her not to, I found myself in high spirits, knowing that sometime she would be around again. I waited for her, I slowed down for her, because I knew that she wouldn't be able to keep up if she was still recovering. It was funny, but I sensed her faster than before. She was miles and miles away, and I knew she was coming. I thought at first that it was her Ki, but, she had weakened significantly from her injuries. I brushed off at the time the thought of it meaning anything else. That maybe there was a stronger bond. I am in the mindset to even do that now. I have hardly been known to show any type of attachment to anyone. The only people I have any level of attachment to is Master Gouken and Ken. The Master because he raised me, and was like a father, and Ken because he trained with me all those years. He is the only friend I have. Even so, I only see him once a year now, when we visit our old masters temple, to honor him on the anniversary of his death.

And the lake. Seeing her scars. Seeing her cry like that. I wanted to kiss her then, I was ready to. Her face was so close, and I could feel her heartbeat in the same pace and rhythm as mine. It almost happened, and the only thing that stopped me was fear. I fear attachment to her. Maybe because I almost lost her once, and I don't want something like that to happen again. I have been pushing her away because if she keeps following me, I fear she will die. But I also know it is also her choice to do so.

I realize everything I said was not true. I do want her near me. There is some type of connection, more than what it seems. Maybe this is another lesson that I need to learn. It's not that I can't be the person she wants me to be, it's that I don't know how. My mind has always been focused on one thing, the fight ahead of me, the journey. I don't know personal affection. This is something she will have to teach me. And I have some teaching of my own to do with her.

As fast as I can I gather my things and put out the fire. She isn't too far ahead, only having left a few hours ago. I have to catch up to her. I have to tell her that I am sorry for everything I said. And I have to tell her I will teach her the nameless art that uses Hadou.

* * *

Note: Am I the only one that thinks Ryu from Street Fighter Alpha is fricken hot for an animated character? God I hope not… maybe I will google it… I am sooo the typical anime fan girl.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, my cat would have a diamond studded collar and would be served her cat food on a gold platter.

Note: We are back to Renee. It is possible I will have another Ryu POV at some other time. I haven't decided yet.

* * *

Chapter 11

Sleeping in that tree was definitely not comfortable. Plus I didn't get much sleep. I want to take a break and take a quick nap but, I need to get as far away as possible. I don't want him to think I am going to stalk him again. I just hope that the dreams don't haunt me now that I have given up my mission. If I have to see shadow man on a constant basis screaming "YOU MUST LEARN" at me, I might go crazy.

It's almost dawn. He should be waking up soon. I find myself wondering what path he will take. I imagine he will go in the opposite direction, so he can get away from me. I hope that someday I will stop sensing him. Maybe if I go back home to LA, it will stop.

I know he is awake now, I can feel it. I hope he finds the letter. Even though it was a bit harsh. Maybe I should have been nicer and less… guilt trippy.

Either my senses are playing tricks on me, or he is headed in my direction. I continue, at the same pace. I could be too far ahead for him to know what direction I took. If he gets close enough he may change his course when he realizes where I am. I am not going to get hopeful that he has reconsidered.

Even closer now. In fact, so close that he should surely be aware of my location. It also seems like he is closer than he should be, like he was running. I find myself getting hopeful. What other reason is there that he is so close in such little time?

Any minute now, he will be right behind me. I stop to wait. I close my eyes, but I do not turn around. I hear him walking through the brush.

"Renee."

I gasp and place my hand on my chest. My eyes are still closed. If I turn around and open them, and he really isn't there…

"Renee, look at me."

*Here it goes. Please don't be imaginary* I turn around and open my eyes. He is standing a few feet in front of me. He is really there.

"I need to explain something to you."

*Are you going to tell me that you were wrong, or throw more heartbreak at me?*

"I realize, it's not that I can't. I don't know how. I have always thought that I never needed anyone else in my life. Too many things to go wrong. I mean, things have already gone wrong, haven't they? I let myself get involved."

I remain silent, even though he pauses. He is expecting a response from me, but I still don't know what he means. This still isn't a sure thing. He could still say something to crush me. The silence lasts what seems like an eternity.

"I let myself care for you."

I finally speak. "Is that such a bad thing?"

"No, it isn't. So you have to promise me something."

Anything you want. It's yours. "Promise you what?"

"You have to teach me how to be that person. If you can do that, then I will help you."

*Really? No no, don't get too excited yet Renee* "Help me with what?"

"With managing your Ki. I will teach you how my master taught me. I will teach you the nameless art."

My eyes show excitement! They get wide, and my jaw drops to the floor. *I can't believe it! Please don't be a dream, please don't be a dream!* I smile, a giant grin on my face. I drop my bag to the floor and run to him. I jump into him, hugging him and laughing. He catches me and holds me up from the ground.

He sets me down but continues to hold me. He backs his head up to look at me in the eyes. "Well?" he says.

I lean in and kiss him. His eyes go wide from the spontaneity of it, but then he relaxes. I release the kiss and look at him. "Does that answer your question?"

* * *

After he found me and our wonderful reunion happened, we walk to a very nearby city, and check into an Inn. Luckily he realized that sleeping in a tree is not comfortable, and then waking up only a few hours later, to then begin walking at a faster than normal pace, that I must have been dead tired. Even though I want to sleep, I can't help but to indulge into this new freedom with him. I begin asking questions…

"What was it like for you, you know, growing up. Didn't you have a family?"

He sighs heavily. "Well, it's… complicated."

"Well I would like to know. I know hardly anything about your past. I only know what I.." I recall the dreams, but decide not to tell him. "What I have heard others say about you. I don't even know if its true. Lets call this part of our teaching process, ok?"

He chuckles. "Ok. Well… As for family, I never knew my real parents. From what I understand, I was left on an old monks doorstep, near Gouken's Temple. He took care of me for a while, but after a few years, Gouken took me in to train with him. He wanted to teach me an old style of martial arts that uses Hadou, which is the style I use in gathering my Ki. It really doesn't have a name. Ken came later to train with me. His father and Gouken were friends."

"Ken Masters? Is that the same Ken?"

"Yea, how did you know?"

"He paid my hospital bill."

"Oh yea. I didn't think they would tell you his name. No matter. He lives in America… In California I think. But he is rich there. I called in a favor. He was more than happy to help."

"I lived in California before I came here. But I will tell you about that later. Tell me more about you."

"Well… We trained for years under Gouken. Finally we were old enough and experienced to leave. Ken stayed around in Japan for a while, but he doesn't like to travel as I do. Still, we would always find ourselves entering the same tournaments, and more often than not, being the last 2 fighters in the end. Sometimes he wins, sometimes I win. There are things he is more skilled at than I am, which is why I say that I still haven't mastered the art myself. His Dragon Punch is superior to mine. But he eventually left to go to America. He even got married. But surprisingly he has kept up on his techniques. We spar on Gouken's anniversary of his death. He is still just as good as before."

"How did Gouken die?"

He pauses for a second, trying to find the words, it seems. "He was murdered. By his own brother. Gouki."

I look down at the ground. "I am sorry," I say somberly. "Why did he kill him?"

"At first I thought it was for revenge. Now, I think it was just to prove himself.

When Gouken and Gouki trained under their master, Goutetsu, they were supposed to learn everything about the art. There is a darkness to it, Satsui no Hadou. After mastering the art, Gouken left the temple, because he couldn't accept the violent and killing nature of the technique. He refined it, taking out the aspects of Satsui No Hadou, which is eventually what he taught me and Ken. Gouki, however, continued to train under Goutetsu. It is said by Master Gouken that he eventually left because he felt he learned all he could from Goutetsu. Gouki later returned to Goutetsu, and showed him exactly what he had learned in his travels. He killed him. There are rumors that if you go to Goutetsu's temple, that you can still hear him laughing, overjoyed that his pupil had mastered Satsui no Hadou.

After Gouki killed Goutetsu, he went to Gouken's temple, and challenged him. Ken and I were there to witness it. Gouki lost, and in his defeat told his brother to kill him. Gouken however did not wish to do this, since he uses and teaches the ability for spiritual advancement, and not for killing. Gouki was angry but left the temple. After Ken and I left a year later, as suggested by our master, to explore, and learn, and become true warriors, Gouki eventually returned, and defeated Gouken. He killed him using the dark technique.

Satsui no Hadou is dark and evil, and it almost consumed me once. But you will never know about it. Mostly because they say you can only learn it if you are a direct descendant of the true masters. I am somehow descended, but my power has been sealed, and will never be released again. Gouki is the last one now to understand and use the technique."

"It consumed him." I say.

"Yes. It did." A long pause.

"How is your Satsui no Hadou sealed?"

"Gouken sealed it. At least I believe it was Gouken that sealed it. I was becoming like Gouki. I used Satsui no Hadou, and almost killed someone. Sagat."

I remember the vision of the past, where Ryu fought a tall man, and used a dark form of the Dragon Punch, which tore open the mans chest.

"I sometimes found myself in places I don't remember traveling to. I would wake up in the middle of a forest, with everything around me, trees, bushes, animals… all dead.

Finally, I was defeated at a tournament. Ken was there to witness it. He tells me that after I was knocked down, I got back up, and tried to kill my opponent with a technique called Metsu Shoryuken. After that, I had an internal struggle. I was convulsing and twitching in the ring. I don't remember this. All I remember is seeing my master, like in a dream, calming me and sealing the power. He said to me 'You will never again use Satsui no Hadou.' I woke up a few days later."

He looked at me, my face deep in thought, taking in everything that he said. What he didn't know was that I had already seen this in a vision.

"I am glad then, that you can no longer use it. What about Gouki? He is still alive? And does he have children to pass this… Satsui no Hadou technique to?"

"He is alive. And we have fought. I sometimes think he is like me, but the only difference is he doesn't care if he kills someone that challenges him. After I defeated him, he also continued on his journey to become a true warrior. He told me that we would meet again someday. I am sure it will happen. As far as children, he once told me 'Where I walk, I walk alone. Where I fight, I fight alone.' Which is also why there is another rumor… that Goutetsu is angry with Gouki, because he is the last one to know and understand Satsui No Hadou. Unless he has children, which is very unlikely, he will probably never find anyone capable of learning it, let alone, teach someone the technique even if he did. I was sealed, so even if I did want to teach it to someone, I can't."

I wonder now… the man in the purple aura… is this Gouki? Is Ryu wrong? Is this what I must learn? Even so, if I tell him now he may not wish to teach me what he knows. He may not believe me if I tell him I will never learn Satsui no Hadou. Besides, there is no way I have the blood of the old masters. The chances of that are one in a million. The man in the purple aura has to be someone else. He can't be talking about Satsui no Hadou.

We had been soundless for quite a while, since I was deep in thought. Ryu finally breaks the silence.

"What about you. Where in… California?"

"I lived in Los Angeles. Actually I lived there all my life. When I came here, I had never been outside the state before, let alone the entire country."

"What made you come here?"

*Shit… bad question… I don't want to lie…* "I… don't want to tell you that… just yet… You will think I am crazy."

"No, I would never think a person that stalks me for 3 years, following me around through forests, cities and other countries, is crazy. Never," he says, very sarcastically.

I laugh because it's true. "I will tell you, someday, I promise."

He twitches his mouth to the right and lowers his eyebrows. "Fine." He relaxes his face. "What did you do in Los Angeles."

"Well for the most part I trained in martial arts. I learned some from other Sensei, but I had the most fun with my dad. My dad knew a lot about different styles. He was half Japanese, so maybe it came to him naturally. He taught me everything he knew. When I was born, he was a Sensei already, and owned 4 of his own dojos. I grew up with it."

A confused look on his face. "You don't look Japanese."

I chuckle. "No, I don't. His father was in the American military. He met a Japanese girl during the war. It caused a lot of problems, or so I hear. So many problems that the two of them had to leave the military base. They came to America and lived in hiding for a while. After my dad was born, his mother left, leaving only my Grandpa to take care of him. I never knew Grandpa, he died before my dad even got married.

My father met my mother at a bar where she was a waitress. He was drunk because he was upset he lost a match with a man he really hated, and he tried to take it out on the people at the bar. Mom, as small as she was compared to him, this blonde haired green eyed woman, stood up to him and tried to beat him up with her metal serving tray! He tells me he fell in love with her then, because she showed so much strength. It took a while for them to start dating because she hated his guts at first. But after they fell in love… well… you know."

"Where are you parents now?"

I sigh. "Dead. Both of them. Mom died giving birth to me. Complications during labor. They had to cut me out, because she died while I was still in her. It hasn't been the easiest thing to live with, knowing that I killed my mom with my birth."

"I am sure she wouldn't have felt that way."

"Dad used to say that. Said she was a wonderful woman. I look just like her, besides the eyes. I have both of their eyes, since mom had green eyes, and dad had brown eyes. Woodland eyes he used to call it. But everything else is her, my hair, my nose and mouth. I think he loved me so much because of that. I was a daily reminder of the woman he loved. And of course, I was his daughter.

He died about 5 years ago. He liked to live in the moment, and died in a motorcycle accident. He actually told me long before then that that was how he was going to die, and he was ok with it, because at least he would be doing something he enjoyed. I was told he didn't feel a thing. Died on impact. But I miss him." I sigh. "It was painful, living without him. He was the most important man in my life. I was sure no one would ever compare to him, and believe me I tried to find people out there that did. I will have no unconditional love like I did for my father for anyone else. He was my Sensei, my best friend, my brother. All rolled into one man. My father. God I miss him."

"I am sorry you lost him like that. But I know he is proud of you."

"I know he is too." I sniffle, fighting back the tears I thought I cried out long ago.

"My Sensei was important to me. Like a father. I know what its like. You get through it."

"Yea. I got through it all right, lots of trial and error."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I said I tried to find someone that would compare. I mean I guess I was so upset that he was gone, I looked for a replacement, someone to love and attach to. He was the only man in my life, and I wanted so desperately to have love again, I went looking in the wrong places. For about a year I started… well… looking for love I guess. Obviously not fatherly love, but love all the same. But I learned very fast that most men only have one thing in mind…"

He looks genuinely curious. Then again I never took him to be a typical man, with all the restraint he has shown being around me, and with my tiny advances. "What do they always have in mind?"

"Sex. Pretty much 24/7. With whomever they can get it with. But they prefer the stupid pretty ones."

"I am sure you have found that men in Japan are not as typical?"

"While there are less horny guys here than where I am from, there are still more than enough."

We laugh together. "So that means you are not… uh…" he stammers in the end.

"I prefer to call it somewhat experienced. It was just a bad time, and when I learned exactly how bad it was, what I was doing to myself, I got my head on again and started over."

"I see."

Awkward silence. To ask or not to ask…

"So you have never," I ask but he cuts me off and immediately answers.

"No."

"Ok gotcha… how bout them Bears…"

He gives me a confused look.

"Oh, just an American thing… They are a football team. I guess you don't watch a lot of TV. Well obviously… when is the last time I watched TV." I derail again. "So when do we start training?"

"I was thinking after you got some rest. Maybe in the morning. We will head out again and stop at the next good spot."

All of a sudden, as I was being reminded I was tired, I yawned widely. "Sounds good to me. I think I might get a head start on rest though."

He stands up. "I will let you sleep then."

I stand up. "Ok. Not tired?"

"No. I am going to walk around for a while. I will be back later, don't worry."

"Ok… I guess… I will go to sleep then…" I move my foot in a tip toe in a half circle in front of me, trying to make myself clear I am waiting for something. He unfortunately doesn't catch on.

He turns to leave. I rush up to him and grab his arm and pull him back towards me. I give him a small kiss on the lips, but linger for just a few seconds. I release from my tiny kiss, and smile at him. "Goodnight."

He smiles back to me. It was genuine. "Goodnight."

* * *

Note: I really like my story, and I hope everyone else is enjoying it too. My lore that was created has been adapted from several versions of what happened. There are so many different versions of Ryu's back story, whether it was in the games or the Anime, so I took a little from here, a little from there, and made up some of it on my own as well. Please, let me know what you think!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would have a TV that was so big it would take over the entire wall. And then I would play World of Warcraft on it. SWEET!

* * *

Chapter 12

"It's difficult to master at first, but you will get the hang of it eventually. I know you will. I have always said that someday…"

I cut him off "I will learn to manage my Ki, I got it." I didn't mean to sound frustrated, sometimes it just happens.

"I know it seems like a lot of work at first, but eventually you won't even have to go through these beginning motions to gather Ki, it will just come to you as you move."

He demonstrates to me again, the basics of gathering Ki. He extends his arms out horizontal, palms out, and then begins moving them in a wide but opposite circular pattern. I can see as he is doing this, blue orbs begin to gravitate towards his hands, and then disappear.

"You have to take the energy around you, because it's always there. And then you infuse it with yourself. When you gather enough, you move it to an area of your body you wish to use. The more you gather, the more powerful that attack will be."

He demonstrates by motioning his hands to his sides. A ball of blue flaming energy appears between his palms.

"Hadouken!" he yells, as he pushes the energy towards the sky, and the blue ball flies off into the air.

"Eventually, you will not have to take that long to gather Ki, unless you are trying to do an especially powerful attack."

He demonstrates again, gathering his Ki slowly, with the circular hand motions, and then gets ready.

"Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku!" he yells as he starts his hurricane kick, spinning with his leg extended. I can see the Ki through his entire leg through the revolutions. It leaves a blue trail as he spins. If this were a rave party, people on ecstasy would be totally mesmerized by this. I am not even on drugs and I am amazed every time.

"I know you have seen all these before, but another thing to remember, is if you gather Ki, you have to release it somehow. Even if you have to release it in the ground, you can't keep it inside you for too long. If you didn't, it would be forced out of you eventually. And it wouldn't be pretty. Think of it like… If you were struck by lightning. If you aren't properly grounded, then the electricity will take any exit it can, through your mouth, your nose, your ears, even your pores. So I can't just gather my Ki and then leave it alone, I have to release it somehow."

He does the hand motions again. I am sure he will show me the Dragon Punch now.

"Shoryuken!" he yells as he raises his fist in the air into a jumping uppercut, his hand in a blue fire. He does a 180 into the uppercut, and then 180 back to the ground.

"Ken is better at that. I will have him show you when we see him."

"We are going to see him? When?"

"It's a while off, a few weeks. It's almost time again."

"Ah yes, to visit the temple."

"Right. I am surprised you never went up there. I figured you would have since you followed me all that time."

"I somehow knew that it was a sacred place. I couldn't go there to watch you. I wouldn't have felt right about it. Plus I would have been very close to you, and I am sure you would have sensed me long before you finally did."

"I understand. It was probably best that way."

He stares at me for a long while. I wonder what he is thinking. I imagine he is revisiting those times when he went to the temple, in the past 3 years, possibly trying to remember anything about another presence. Do I still baffle him even today?

"It's your turn, Renee."

"Ok, what do you want me to try first."

"Well, first, I want to see if you can gather Ki. It took a while for me to get the hang of it, so I imagine you won't be getting it right the first few times."

So he doesn't think I can do this the first time. True, not many can mimic an ability after only seeing it once. I have gathered my Ki before but never as he has demonstrated, and the power of the attacks have hardly been impressive when I want them to be. Except maybe when I kicked Vega in the face. Hmmm….

"How do you think I did it before?"

He looks shocked I asked the question. "Which time?"

"I can only thing of one time that I was able to gather enough energy… When I did the Hurricane Kick, with Vega. Have I done it other times successfully?"

"Yes. You did. You don't remember?"

I tried to recall other times I have attempted to gather my Ki. "I can only think of one time before, but that was a pathetic little spark! I don't even think about that being any type of energy except static."

"There has been another time. It's the most I have seen out of anyone. I can barely do it myself on command."

I try to remember, but I don't recall any other time. "When?"

"When you were in my arms, dying."

My eyes widen and my jaw drops. "What did I do?"

"You surrounded yourself in energy. At first, it was electric, but then you somehow tuned into mine, and we were both surrounded by it. It then transformed into my energy."

"But, you have a blue flame. I saw you in blue flame. It was your aura!"

"In the end yes. But not at first. It was only you at first."

I try to remember again. I looked at his face. I started to shiver and convulse. He tells me to focus, and I see the blue light. Was it just surrounding me first?

"What did it do for me? How did I use the energy?"

"I don't know exactly. It might have kept you alive. It might have taken away the pain for some time. Maybe it protected your mind. Some healers are able to use their Ki to heal. Maybe it was like a defense mechanism, it wanted to protect you."

I place my hands on my stomach, rubbing my scars. I look down and turn my head to the side, and close my eyes. I fight tears from forming, my face showing my struggle.

Ryu walks to me, and places his hands over mine.

"You should not feel ashamed of what happened," he says to me, very sternly. "In fact, you shouldn't even be hiding yourself. If it is a reminder, then it should remind you of what you survived. It should remind you that you are strong, and you can be even stronger. If you always hide this," he lifts my shirt, revealing my stomach, and places his hand on my bare tummy, "then you will never feel confident that you will get stronger. Stop hiding behind it. Let it remind you."

I look up in his eyes. His face is stern and unrelenting. He removes his hand and takes a step back. He stands straight, and certain. He looks at me with confidence. I have to be… strong.

I am strong. My face now showing determination. I grab my long sleeve, V neck shirt from the bottom and pull it off, over my head. I throw it to the ground, and stand as undaunted and fearless as ever. I hold each hand in a tight fist at my sides, and raise my chin higher. And never taking my eyes off of Ryu. I stand, my scars in full view for anyone to see, in my navy blue sports bra, and my low riding pale blue banded, royal blue legged yoga pants. I tear does make it down my cheek, but not from sadness or fear. Not anymore.

"Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes, Sensei."

* * *

"You did well today," he says to me, as we sit next to each other by the fire, just finishing up from eating supper.

"It is harder than I thought."

"You have the potential though. Not everyone does. I think with time and practice you will be very good. Might even be able to beat me someday." He smirks and winks at me.

I smile at him. I scoot closer to him so our legs almost touch. He looks a little uncomfortable, like he doesn't know what to do. I feel him tense his body a little, like he is expecting me to attack him.

"I don't bite you know."

He chuckles. "I know."

"Why so tense?"

He looks up at the sky and closes his eyes. He takes in a deep breath. His tension seems to relax a little.

I touch his arm gently with my hand. I feel his huge, define muscles, and travel up his arm, lightly squeezing his bicep, then continuing on to his strong shoulder. He keeps his eyes close but lowers his head from looking at the sky.

With my other hand, I place it on the side of his face that I cant see, and gently force him to look in my direction. I caress his cheek with my thumb, but then move my hand down and touch his lips with my fingertips. Gently, I place my hand under his chin, holding it with just my index finger. I gesture by pulling slightly by the chin for him to move towards me. He complies, and leans in close to me, our faces millimeters apart.

I want him to make the first move. He taught me confidence today, and I want to do the same. I keep my distance from his lips but only slightly. I can feel the aura of his lips so close to mine. I can feel his breath as he exhales blowing on my skin. Still he sits, and he waits.

I stay in this position, holding his chin slightly with my finger, and move the hand on his shoulder down his arm, slowly, then to his forearm, caressing, and feeling the veins and muscles, and then finally stopping at his hand. I take his hand and raise it to my face, so he cups my cheek. I release his hand to see what he does.

He keeps his hand on my cheek, but moves his thumb, slowly down my face, next to my nose, and then over my chin. I open my mouth slightly. He caresses my bottom lip from left to right with his thumb.

I am almost losing my patience, because his touch is so soft and seducing that I want to give in to my own tease and kiss him. I let go of his chin to see if he backs away or stays. Or kisses me. I am hoping for a kiss.

His face stays where it is. He moves his thumb to caress my top lip as well, continuing to move it from my left side of my lips to the right and back again. He then moves his thumb back to my chin, but moves his fingers to feel down my jaw and then under my jaw, moving slowly to under my chin.

My breathing gets heavier with impatience. I try to tease him more by moving ever so slightly closer, his lips barely touching mine, both our mouths open, feeling each others hot breath. Is he testing my patience or am I testing his? I don't even know anymore. But soon I will lose this game…

Finally, as if I have been waiting my entire life, he gestures my chin close to him with his fingers, and softly kisses me. A hot electricity runs through my entire body. His lips are soft and smooth, and I want so much more, but I don't want to be forceful. I move my hand to brush his face with my fingers, feeling the lines in his jaw. I want to be gentle but I still want to progress in our kiss. Tenderly, I taste his lips with my tongue.

I feel as if I am on fire, and I want more. My entire body is tingling with desire. I wonder how far I want to take this, or how far I want to push him. As he starts to explore my lips with his own tongue, I feel myself wanting to explode. My core is burning, my soul like lightning. He has to stop and I can't tell him to stop. I want to tell him to keep going, I want to tell him to do more.

It's like he is reading my mind. He releases from our kiss, which seemed like it lasted for hours, and kisses the sides of my mouth. He takes his hands and cups my face, and then rests his forehead on my forehead. His breathing is still heavy but he is calming down. He leans in for a quick kiss to my lips and then releases me. He rolls down on his back, and places his hands on his stomach, looking up to the sky.

I look down at him. His face looks relaxed and his eyes look like he is in utopia. I gently roll down on my back, next to him and look up at the starry night as well. With our encounter fresh on my mind, I can't help but smile.

After a while, he gets his bedroll ready for a good nights sleep. And he didn't seem surprised that when I got mine, I rolled it out next to his, almost like two elderly people pushing their twin beds together. He didn't mind me snuggling up next to him, placing my head in that perfect nook on his shoulder, and my arm across his bare chest. He didn't mind my unbound hair draping down his shoulder and tickling his neck. And he didn't mind me falling asleep like that.

* * *

Note: I am such a sap…


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I'd probably live in a mansion, with a kitty for every room.

* * *

Chapter 13

I know he has been awake, but I don't know for how long exactly. As my dreams start to dissipate and I am ascending to the point of consciousness, I can feel his energy, waiting to be used in the daily morning exercises. I open my eyes to find myself still next to him, still in my nook, not only my arm draped over him, but a leg too. My hair a tangled mess flowing everywhere. He has his arms around me. It feels so good that I don't want to get up. But I know I will have to at some point.

"How did you sleep?" he asks me.

I squeeze him with my arms and stretch out my legs. "Mmmmm… pretty good… How about you?"

He responds with similar squeezes and stretches. He motions me slightly, and I can tell he wants to move, so I roll on my back, yawn, and then stretch out my arms above my head. I see him get on his side facing me and propping his head on his hand, his elbow bent to balance. I move my hair behind me and do the same, propping my head on my hand, facing him.

He reaches for my face and caresses me with his fingers, lingering at my lips. I can tell by his eyes he is thinking about last night.

"It was calm. Very restful. It almost feels like I have never had restful sleep till now." He smiles at me. It's beautiful. His face is so perfect. I think I…

"But we should be getting up. It's after dawn. We should practice more today."

I beam back at him. "You are right. We have so many things to learn."

He gets up and immediately goes into a stance for morning kata. It's something we do every morning for about an hour. It gets your energy flowing through your body, and makes you feel refreshed and alert for the rest of the day.

I get up as well, pull my hair back in a ponytail and match his stance. He starts to move into the dance, and I copy him, almost perfectly. The speed of each move at its normal pace, since I am finally able to keep up again.

I don't normally talk to him as we do this, but today, I feel as if I need to make something clear, not only for him but for myself.

"Whenever you want, we can explore… our… relationship. I mean, it doesn't have to be all the time if you don't want it to be. I want you to be comfortable," I say, in between moves.

He continues to flow into each move as he speaks. "I think when time permits it. I want to focus on you first, teach you what you need to know and make sure you progress. Not that I don't mind… exploring our relationship. I think you will always know when it is right."

"I agree that training should come first, but I don't want to be selfish. I don't want you to think that all I want to do is learn from you."

"You have made it clear that you are not selfish, at least in what you have to learn and what you have to teach. However, both can be distracting."

I look at him and raise an eyebrow. I smirk slightly. "How so?"

He finishes his flow gracefully and then puts his hands together and bows. "For example. We are doing our morning exercise, and yet, you are having a hard time focusing because you are thinking about… last night. You are distracted."

"I am distracted? And you aren't?"

"I am not the one who is stumbling on a flow that I have done a million times, and should be second nature."

I chuckle. "Ok so I am a bit distracted. But you have to at least be thinking about it."

"I do, Renee. But don't be offended when it isn't on the forefront of my mind. I am sure the thoughts will always be there, but when I am focused on something, I lock other thoughts away for a moment."

"I understand. But you said both can be distracting. Does that mean you are thinking about fighting when you are kissing me?"

He smiles and laughs. "Not fighting, but I think about your Ki, and mine, and how it reacts. I am pretty sure that is _not_ what you are thinking of… when we are… kissing."

His face goes into Sensei mode and his body goes into his rigid stance, his arms at his sides, his hands in fists. His legs parted in a wide stance.

I bring my hands together at my middle and bow to him. "I am ready, Sensei."

"I think today it would be appropriate to learn how to infuse your energy into a move that you have shown the greatest potential in. First you will try to gather your Ki, and then I want you to try Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku, the Hurricane Kick."

* * *

We practiced for what seemed like hours. I was getting the hang of gathering energy. He was surprised to see that when I gathered Ki, it seemed like I was gathering sparks instead of orbs. I was absorbing an electric current more than an orb of energy. With every move I practiced, it seemed more like lightning, and less like fire.

When it seemed we were finished with our practice for the time being, he surprised me by going into his fighting stance.

"Its time for you to show me what you have learned."

I get nervous, because last time I sparred with Ryu, it was horrible, almost embarrassing. I get into my fighting stance. I wonder how I am going to have enough time gathering Ki, as I still have to use the basic motions, and haven't even mastered that yet. I am not too sure how I am going to be able to fit that into a match with him. Maybe that is what he is testing right now.

He waits for me to attack first. I decide not to use Hadou attacks for now. I go back to my roots, my Aikido. Although, learning his technique has modified my moves in Aikido as well, as it is mostly a defensive style of martial arts. The two are still similar, with many basic techniques using grabs and throws, and has a certain mental aspect of focusing on Ki.

I know he will block every single attack I can attempt, so I decide to use everything that I have. Even if I manage to land a blow, I am sure he would not be disappointed.

I slowly get within range for an attack, watching him as I go, just incase he decides to attack first. I first try to sweep him with my left foot, but he jumps over my leg with ease. Still in my momentum from the sweep, I raise to do a roundhouse kick with the same leg. He still sees this coming and dodges the attack. Since I have made no contact it is easy to flow into a new move with the force I am generating, so as soon as my left foot makes contact with the ground, I shift into a backwards kick that I observed from Ryu before, with my right foot. Again, I do not make contact as he backs away, but at the same time he is able to grab my outstretched ankle and spins a 180 to toss me.

I tuck and roll into my landing and turn to face him. He is not advancing, and waiting again for me to attack. I rush him and try to thrust at his chest, he, however, grabs my wrist and pulls me close to him, then uses his other hand to push down on my shoulder, pushing me to the ground. I land a little harder than I expected, but, I recover quickly and again, roll out of the way, and stand again.

I know what he expects me to do, but still can't seem to get enough energy to do a full Hurricane Kick. I circle him, attempting to gather Ki without using the hand motions. I feel it flowing into me, but not as good as it does when I use the motions. Still, it's something. I run towards him and jump in the air.

"Tatsumaki Sempuu Kyaku!," I yell, as I spin, a dim spark of electricity emanating from my legs. I can feel each kick make contact, however he was able to block all 4 rotations. As I land, he grabs me again as I am still trying to recover from my attack, and rolls backwards, his foot on my stomach. As his roll gains force, he launches me into the air, pushing me with his foot. I flip and twist like a gymnast, and land on my feet, facing him. He is already standing and facing me. It seemed impossible he was able to recover from his roll that quickly.

To my surprise he rushes me. He tries a right hook, but I am able to see it coming, and this time I get to grab him. I catch his wrist with my right hand and with my left I grip his arm at his triceps and flip him over my head, not letting go till I am sure I have forced him into the ground. I let go when he makes contact and back flip out of his way, in case he tries to do a recovery attack. He kicks himself up and turns to face me, no longer in a fighting stance.

I relax and exhale forcefully. I want to ask him how I did since I can't read his face when he is in Sensei mode. I figure if I did insanely terrible he will probably tell me anyway.

"It's been a long time since I sparred with you. I know you go easy on me."

"You may not think so, but you are still recovering. If I didn't go easy on you, I would hurt you."

"If I had never been injured?"

"I may still go easy but I might have been a little more forceful than I was. One day you will fight me at my full power. Just don't go around thinking that it's going to be any time soon."

"Well for now I think I am thankful. Now that I replay what we just did, you had so many opportunities to strike me in positions where I wouldn't be able to block fast enough. How did you recover so quickly from that roll?"

"It goes with everything else I say. When you are able to manage your Ki, everything improves. Not just the power of your attacks, but the speed."

"Well I do need a lot of practice, because I can't seem to gather enough energy without the basic hand motions. And trying that in a fight doesn't seem to be reasonable because you, or any opponent can attack me as I gather. It's not very practical at the moment."

"It isn't, but it will get better. You are going to do it every day. And you will spar with me every day as well. Maybe more than once a day."

"Awww every day?" I say sarcastically. He doesn't respond however. He is still in Sensei mode.

"Yes, Sensei," I say as I put my hands together and bow.

* * *

Note: Chapter a bit short but, story building all the same. Promise next one to be exciting and probably sappy.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I wouldn't have to do this silly disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter.

Note: As she will state in the first paragraph (OMG spoilers already! j/k) I am going to jump ahead a bit. I am sure you don't want to read 15 chapters of her daily progression in training. Instead, we go to the excitement! Let's get ready to rumble!

* * *

Chapter 14

It's been a few weeks since I started my training with Ryu. He is a very good Sensei. As we progress, I think about how he reminds me of what I was looking for. Like when I told him that after my father died, I looked for love and acceptance. Although I don't exactly know Ryu's feelings for me, I feel like I did when I trained with my father, only slightly different. Obviously I wasn't attracted to my father. But I loved my father because he was so much more than just that. I have said before, he was my father, my brother, my Sensei. With Ryu, instead of my father, he is more like a lover.

Well not exactly like a lover. I don't push him into anything at all. Let's just say, if our relationship started at the home plate, it has at least hit the ball, and we have traveled halfway to first base. His kisses still set me on fire, and ever since that first night, we haven't slept apart. It seems like even if I am just sleeping next to him, I find myself in his arms in the morning, in my favorite spot on his shoulder. There have been a few occasions now that we have "slept in," which absolutely never happened before when it came to Ryu's sleeping habits. And now, when one of us wakes up, the other is soon to follow.

I am much better at gathering Ki. I have learned that even the simplest movement can cause enough friction to gather energy. Whether I am moving backwards, or forwards, or circling my adversary, it all converts to Ki energy, as long as I open myself up. I think of it as the wind. Any movement I make creates a movement in the air, and I take the energy away from the wind and feed it to myself. The only thing that Ryu still finds puzzling is that my Ki is manifested in an electric current, not only burning, but shocking as well. However, he has also said that he has seen Ken's aura in a red flame, especially when he is at his full power. And I personally remember from my dreams seeing purple.

Even though I have learned so much in the last few weeks, I still get my ass handed to me when I spar with Ryu. But I do manage to make contact on more blows, which pleases him. He is happy I kicked him in the face. Go figure.

I have also learned to show confidence when it comes to showing my body. I no longer wear the long sleeved shirt or the tank top. Instead I wear a midriff, cropped, and always tight fitting tank top, also in royal blue, which shows off most of my scars (What can I say, I look good in blue). The yoga pants are the same, with the light blue, thick elastic belt that rides slightly below my belly button, and royal blue legs. However, the new addition to my getup is now a white headband. Ryu got it for me and then demonstrated how he puts his own red one on, and what he thinks when he does. He said to me "When I tie this on, I ask my body a question. Am I worthy of this fight?" I think about that now, every time I tie on my own headband.

We have continued of course, to travel in between our daily routine of training and sparring. In fact, the city we are in at the moment seems to be busy, and there have been rumors of a street fight going on. We keep hearing that there is some fighter that hasn't lost a match yet today, and if someone can beat him, they will have a major cash payout. Ryu and I are looking for this fight so one of us can participate. Honestly I haven't been able to participate in a fight yet. Not that any particular fighter lately has been extremely hard, but it seems Ryu is still concerned with me getting hurt. I hope he feels differently today though. It's been about 3 weeks since we have seen our last street fight, and I know I have had much progression since then.

As we pass by a park, we see a large crowd of people gathered in the distance.

"That has to be it," I say.

"I think you are right."

We walk over to the crowd, attempting to see what is going on. We hear the two people in the middle fighting. Punches are getting thrown, grunts from kicks being heard, and the sweet sound of hand or fist slapping the other person as it makes contact. This particular fight doesn't last long.

"Still undefeated today! That is 8 wins in a row! Does anyone else want to try and best Antonio in a fight?" a man says. He looks to be the one accepting all the bets.

Ryu and I try to make our way to the front of the crowd. I want to volunteer but, I know that I need his permission first, and of course, he is going to have to take a look at this guy before he makes his decision.

"Ah ha! You there, in the white gi, red headband. How about you? If you win, you get half of the cash from the bets that have been placed against Antonio today!"

Ryu doesn't respond right way. He is studying the fighter, Antonio. He is a tall, dark skinned, Italian looking sasquatch of a man. Not only does he have dark oily hair slicked back on his head, but he has a full dark scruffy beard. He is wearing a camo cargo pants, with combat boots, and a white wife beater. You can all too clearly see his dark curly hair on his arms, chest, shoulders and back. This is one hairy dude. He is built like a wrestler from the WWE, with giant arms and pectorals that make my boobs look like spider bites. He doesn't even have a neck. His muscles from his shoulders are so massive it just goes right to his freaking jaw. Or he does have a neck but his massive amount of fur is so thick that it makes it invisible.

"So how bout it mister? You wanna give it a shot?"

"I will pass. My lady friend here, however, may wish to fight him." He looks over to me, and shows his approval for me to go ahead.

"A girl?" Antonio says, and then starts hysterically laughing. The entire crowd joins him in his hilarity. "No, no. I do not fight girls. I am an honorable man, I will not hit a lady."

I step into the middle. "Then I guess that will just make it easier for me to beat you now, wont it?" I say, smugly.

"Cara, do you know what you say? It already looks like you have had enough. You have many scars, I see."

"It should only tell you that I have battled before. I am no longer ashamed of these scars. I can prove my worthiness to you, but you have to agree."

Antonio studies me for a moment, to gauge my seriousness. I stand in front of him, nothing but resolve emanating from my form. My fists clenched at my sides, my smirk gone, a face of stone. My new white headband tails flowing with the wind. He crosses his arms across his chest and begins to walk in circles around me. I stand as still as possible.

"I fight you then. You tell me when you give up."

"OK! The lady it is! Anyone want to bet on the lady?" I hear some laughter from the crowd. I will show them. "No bets? OK, well then, lady, how about, if you win, I give you ¾'s of the prize. That OK with you Antonio?"

"Fine, fine. OK, cara, we do this then. Good luck to you," Antonio says.

"And to you as well, sir." I bow to him, my braid flipping over my head.

We each get into our fighting stances. Just like a wrestler, he keeps his arms far apart, not attempting to cover his face. His legs are also in a wide position. I can tell that most of his moves by this stance are going to be punches and grabs. When we begin, he stands there for a moment. I begin to move to the left and then to the right, hoping that he doesn't understand what I am doing.

He moves towards me, what I would believe to be a normal pace for him, but seeming so sluggish to me. He tries to grab in a bear hug but I easily step back to avoid the grab. He tries to run faster towards me to try again, but he is still to slow, and I duck under his grab and move in behind him. He is too big and wide for me to clutch on to for a throw, so instead I thrust a punch into the middle of his back. He stumbles a few steps forward, but is able to catch himself before he falls, and finally turns around.

"Ah, you are fast, cara. But you will get tired eventually, eh?"

He rushes me again, and starts to spin around with his arms extended, like whirling helicopter blades. This attack is much faster, so it takes a few jumps backwards to evade the attack.

*If I time this perfectly… when he stops…*

I have gathered enough energy for my attack. He slows from his spin and just as he lowers his arms and faces me for his next move, I strike.

"TATSUMAKI!" I jump into the Hurricane Kick, the blue voltage from my Ki shocking and zapping as I spin, landing blow after blow to his head and neck, "SENPUU KYAKU!" I finish the move and land. Antonio, on the ground, moaning, and probably wondering what kind of semi truck came by and ran over him while he was fighting me.

I wait a few seconds to see if he gets up, but he continues to lie on the ground, grumbling and moaning.

"Are we done, Antonio?" I ask.

"Uhhhnnhhnnnnh…"

"I am going to take that as a yes…"

I look around finally. "You guys can close your mouths now. You are all drooling." I look over to the man, who promised the cash winnings. The same expression on his face as everyone else. I hold up my hand and pinch and rub my thumb and fingers together. "Doesn't this mean I get some money?"

"Uh… yea… I guess so." He counts out the stack of coins and bills he has and hands me my share, just as promised. I bow to him to show my appreciation. I walk over to Antonio, who is finally starting to come to, and offer my hand to help him up. I feel Ryu tense, as if he is waiting for the Italian to do something detestable. Antonio accepts my hand, and my assistance.

"Thank you, Antonio." I say as I bow to him.

"No, no. Thank you, cara. You teach me not to underestimate my adversary. I hope we fight again soon." He holds out his hand. I shake his hand and nod to him.

We make our way through the crowd, people separating and making a path as we go through. I can hear them mumble to each other. "She beat him within the first minute." " What a fighter! I wonder what the man in the white gi would have done!" "That was amazing." I grin so wide, I probably look like a clown.

* * *

We travel around the city for a little while longer, browsing for food and supplies. After our essential shopping is done, I decide to use some of my winnings to stay the night at an Inn, Ryu of course, right with me.

I cook our meal of rice and chicken in the little kitchen in our room. I dance and spin around, ecstatic that I won today, and in only two moves. One if you really think about it. Ryu watches me from across the room, leaning on a support beam, with his arms crossed against his chest, a half smile on his face. I make eye contact with him and stop my frolic.

"What?" I ask.

"You did well today, but don't get too full of yourself." He says to me, firmly.

I blow a raspberry at him, and continue to cook our dinner.

When it was finished, we sat down at the table, and ate in silence, which was usual, but my expression was still beaming from my good mood. When we finished, I happily gathered everything and took it to the tiny kitchen. As I put things away, and rinsed out the few dishes we used, I noticed Ryu walk towards the bed. It was still early, and I was hoping that he would stay up with me a little while longer, so I could boast a little about my victory, even though it was small.

"Turning in early?" I said as I walked towards him.

"Thinking about it. We have a busy day tomorrow. It seems that I have taught you enough of one technique. We need to move on to others."

I grin wide, showing my teeth. I notice his expression, while not as stern as usual is still not a light one. "I know I have more to learn, but… I did awesome today! I wanted to relive some of those moments with you." I twitch my smile to the side.

"You beat him with one move, which can mean one of two things. He was either not as skilled as he seemed, or he underestimated you and didn't fight at his full potential. And we both know which one of those two things is the correct assumption."

I sigh heavily. "Yea I get it."

He smiles at me, finally, and walks over to me. He touches me lightly on my cheek with the back of his fingers, and gazes into my eyes. I meet his hand with mine, and take it down, and hold his hand, interlocking my fingers with his. His mouth opens slightly, and I take this as a sign to kiss him. My lips meet his, in a sweet kiss. Normally our kisses are short and sweet, and he always stops me before my passion overtakes me. I try not to get frustrated but sometimes I want more from him so bad it hurts. I assume tonight will be no different, but I still toy with him to see how far I can push him.

I play my game of tasting his lips with my tongue. To my astonishment he plays right back with me, finally tasting my own lips with his tongue. I experiment more, and search for his tongue with mine, gently. Our kiss becomes harder, and I feel his tongue sliding over mine. He has to stop me soon, because the waves of passion will soon be too much.

But he doesn't. Instead he pulls me closer to him, pressing me tight against him. Our passionate kiss becoming more forceful and needy. My hands can't help it. I move them down his body to his belt, tugging at it with frustration. I want it off, and I want it off now. He slides his hands down my sides and helps me unfasten the belt. I hear it drop to the floor. From his perfect abs, I spread my hands up his body, feeling each line and muscle of his chest, up to his shoulders, where I slip off the top part of the gi. He straightens his arms for a moment to let it slide off, and then returns his arms around me, trying so hard to pull me into his body. The skin of our stomachs touching together, so hot and exhilarating. Every touch of his hands on my skin igniting my burning soul.

He starts to walk backward towards the bed, still holding me close to him, and I follow. When we make it to the bed which is on the ground, he starts to lower me to it. I am lost in the ardor of what is happening. I never want it to stop. Whatever he wants he can have from me. His lips never part from mine as I lay down on my back, and he lies on top of me. He pushes so hard against my body, it feels like he wants to consume me, and combine my body with his. I moan, wanting more and more and more. He leaves my lips, but only to kiss me down my face, tracing my jaw with his lips till he reaches my ear. He licks and sucks on my earlobe, making me arch my back and moan, pushing myself into him even more, even when we thought I couldn't get any closer. He works his way down to my neck, and I gasp in pleasure. I run my fingers down his back and stop at the rim of his pants. I am so consumed, and single minded in my heat, I work my hands around to the front and I try to undo the drawstring of his pants. His hand travels down my arm and grabs my wrist, and moves my hand above my head.

His breathing is starting to slow, his kisses lose some of their passion. His heart beat starts to go back to a normal pace. He gently kisses his way back to my lips. He leans on his arm, his body, half on me, half on his side on the bed, and takes his other hand and touches my face with the back of his fingers. He releases his kiss and gazes into my eyes. The passion isn't dead in his eyes yet but it is evaporating. His breathing returns to normal. He lays his head down above my shoulder and closes his eyes. He pulls me as close as I can get to him, still occasionally rubbing my other shoulder with his thumb. When his hand stops moving a few minutes later, I know he is asleep.

* * *

Note: I know! So close right? But I probably won't publish a lemon. If I do write a lemon, I would have to send it out by request. I will let you know. Still, I hope this was written well.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would probably have a boyfriend… and he would look like Ryu. Haha.

Note: Prepare for fluff

* * *

Chapter 15

It took me a while to calm down, but I eventually fell asleep. I can't say I wasn't disappointed that we didn't progress further in our moment of excitement and passion, but I also understand his hesitation. I guess I will always expect him to know when to calm down, especially if he thinks things are going too fast. I really do want him to go at his own pace when it comes to furthering our relationship. Even though I was denied the ultimate pleasure I was craving, it was nice for a change to have him cuddle on to me, in that similar nook I tend to find myself on, when I sleep with him.

Somehow during the night I managed to get on my left side, but he remained close to me. I wake up with his hand draped across my stomach and on top of my scars with his head buried in between my shoulder blades. I never even got the chance to take my braid out, which might be good since he might have a mouthful of hair if it was undone. Come to think if it, I never even got out of my halter or pants either. I smile as I can feel his body which is completely parallel to mine, down to the slight bend in my knees. It is a wonderful feeling to have someone so close, still trying to pull you into them, even as they sleep. I lay there, several minutes passing by, thinking about our night, and listening to him breathe. It almost tickles as I feel each breath he exhales travel down my spine.

He usually wakes up right after me if I wake up first, but not this morning. It was almost an hour before I feel him tighten his grip on me and attempt to pull me closer to him, even though we were as close as we could possibly get. I feel his eyelashes flutter open, as they brush against my back. He begins to trace my scars on my belly, always easy to find, since the skin is raised on the scar tissue. It still feels pleasant. He kisses my spine, in between my shoulder blades, and lifts his head to the scars on my back, and kisses those as well, one by one.

"Mmmmm," I respond to the kisses.

"Mmmmph," he grunts, like someone who doesn't want to get out of bed.

"Good morning, sleepy head," I say.

"Mmmm… Morning."

"We don't have to get up just yet. I like this. It feels good."

"I know," he replies, a little groggy, but still managing to sound sweet.

"I like what you were doing."

"What… this?" he replies, and then kisses my scars again.

"Mmm hmm."

He exhales and tries again to pull me close to him. He buries his head into my back again and squeezes me tight. I lace my fingers through his, and hold his arm tight around my belly.

"We can stay like this as long as you want," he says, his voice muffled from my back.

A few moments later, I hear his stomach growl. He moans in disapproval. Then, mine does the same, as if it sympathized for his apparent hunger. I also moan in disapproval.

"I think our stomachs have a different idea on how long we are going to stay like this," I say to him, a slight giggle in my voice.

"Maybe it will go away," he complains, his voice still muffled. I am surprised to see him act this way. He is normally the one to be the adult.

"Yes, it will go away, after there is some food in it. I will make some breakfast… What do you want to have?"

"… … bacon." I think I might have created a monster.

I try to unhook myself from his grasp but he doesn't let go. This is the sweetest I have ever seen him, and it's almost heartbreaking that I have to get up and leave him to get food to cook a breakfast. Still…

"You have to let me go if you want me to feed you," I say, my voice a little pouty.

I hear him sigh as he exhales forcefully. He loosens his grip enough to let me turn around to my other side, so I can look at him. He finally rolls on to his back but continues to look at me as well. He has a small grin on his face, but its enough to make my heart melt. I can't help but to beam right back at him. He reaches for my face and caresses my cheek with his thumb, like he always does. I will never be tired of it.

"I… love your eyes," he says to me, as he looks in to my green and brown speckled orbs.

Hearing him say just the one word makes my body tingle at my core. I smile and close my eyes for a moment to let the warm explosion travel through the rest of my body in a wave. I open them again when the feeling dissipates through my fingers and toes.

I touch his face tenderly with my fingers, studying his uncommonly expressive face as it stares into me. I want to tell him that I love him, but can't seem to get the words out. They are there, but they won't to make it to my vocal cords. Then again, the way I am looking at him right now, I am sure in some way he already knows.

I lean in to give him a morning kiss, which only lingers for a few moments, and then get up to get out of bed. I stretch my hands high over my head and yawn. I expected him to do the same, but when I turn around and look down, I notice he is still lying there, and staring up at me.

"I have to go get some things for breakfast. I will be right back. You stay comfortable," I say to him, his face still content as he looks at me.

I grab my pack and leave to get our ingredients to our breakfast from the nearby market. He never takes his eyes off of me as I go out the door.

* * *

When I came back from the market, the bed was made neatly and the kitchen already prepared with items that would be needed to cook our breakfast. I could hear the shower going in the bathroom. I am half tempted to go in there myself and take one with him but I would be pushing too much. I hardly know where my limits are at this point anyway. I decide to begin cooking the bacon. I also purchased a few eggs and two potatoes.

By the time he was done with his shower, the bacon was cooked, and I was just putting in the potatoes I just grated into the grease.

*That was an awfully long shower* I think to myself. Although, I am a sucker for standing in the hot water for more time that I need to myself. Sometimes if it's been a while since you have had a hot shower, you take advantage of it to its fullest extent.

He finally walks out as I am scrambling eggs, in just his trousers, and vigorously drying his hair with a towel. I try not to stare as I whisk the eggs, but sometimes I can't help it. When you have the pure embodiment of sexiness standing near you, how could you not?

"Smells good."

"I am making potatoes too. It's been a while since we have had potatoes. Still starchy but a nice substitute for rice."

He twitches his mouth to the right and lowers an eyebrow. "I like rice."

I smile and giggle. "Don't get me wrong, so do I, but we eat it every day. We will probably have it later."

I take the cooked hash potatoes out of the skillet and pour in the eggs. When I look at his face as I am doing this, he seems concerned about something. Normally I would brush this off but, we have been having such a talkative morning, I decide to investigate.

"What's wrong?"

He looks downward for a moment, as if thinking about what he wants to say. He finally spits out what is bothering him. "Are you upset with me?"

I shake my head quickly in astonishment, my face looks puzzled. "Why would I be upset with you?"

"Last night."

I grin slightly, and raise my eyebrows, my face glazed in remembering our previous night. "How would anything that happened last night upset me?"

"I stopped you."

"It's your right to do so."

"I know, but…"

"There is no 'but.' It's your body. When you know you are ready, then you will be ready." I almost feel like a mom explaining the birds and the bees to her teenage son. "Besides, I know what it is you are waiting for. So… when that time comes, if it ever does… just let me know."

"What am I waiting for?"

I sigh. "I can't tell you that. You have to find that out on your own. I will know when you do. It's ok."

"You are right. Thank you."

I smile at him, with a hint of disappointment. I hope he can't read into it too well. "Let's eat so we can get our day started. It's BACON time!"

* * *

Note: Short chapter, full of fluffy sappy goodness. I think I like writing fluff. It makes me warm and fuzzy! Next chapter, excitement… and more fluff… maybe


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did I would help movie producers make a Street Fighter live action movie that is actually worth a crap! Hmm… who would play Ryu?

* * *

Chapter 16

Managing your Ki flow in your body is one thing, but trying to force it out of yourself into a physical form to throw at your opponent feels completely different. When I try the Hurricane Kick, I can easily move the energy to my legs. It actually helps along with the rotations, making them faster and more forceful. I can move it to my fist, and punch with a crushing and powerful blow, able to break bones on those who are not ready to block it. But when I try to manifest this pure electric energy as a blast, attached to no limb, or any other part of the body, all I can seem to make is a spark.

Well not just a spark. When I tried before, months ago, it was a spark, like static. Now, when I hold my hands in position, at my sides, like I am pretending to hold a ball with one hand on the top and one had on the bottom, I create a miniature lightning storm. It is progress, compared to my previous form of this move, but after 2 weeks of attempting this daily, this is all I have. I can't throw my little lightning storm. It seems to only manifest when I have my hands in that position, and I can't seem to get it to gather as a lightning ball in the middle. Once my hands leave that position to go into a throw, the electric current stops and dissipates, and then I have to pound my fist into the ground to release the leftover Ki.

I am trying not to be frustrated with this. I figured that I learned how to incorporate the Ki into my body so fast that learning Ryu's techniques would be simple. He tells me that the amount I know now is more than he knew, compared to the amount of time he was trained by his master. Although I am sure it helps that I already knew many variations and styles of Martial Arts, plus the mimicking him for 3 years from afar to learn his movements.

"It is true, you have the mental awareness to learn this technique, but that doesn't mean that everything is going to be second nature. You have the potential for it, but you can't expect yourself to know this in a short period of time. I trained with Gouken as a small child, and I didn't leave till I was 17. Even then, I wasn't a master. And you know that I don't believe that even today. Don't try to rush this. You have plenty of time."

Do I? That is the problem with visions of the future. They don't tell you when things are going to occur. And so far they haven't even told my why they are going to happen. Or even if they are going to happen. Everything adds up now, but, will it continue to add up? My last confirmation of my vision was being beaten by Vega. How soon between now, and the horrible vision of the blood on my hands?

He sees my face deep in concentration, but with an alarming look. "Why are you in a hurry to learn this? What is it you need to use it for?"

I can't tell him about the dream yet. At least not entirely… "I believe my father wants me to learn this. The reason so far is unclear. But even so, I have a better understanding of so much now. Even if I was never given the idea, this is something that I would have wanted to learn anyway. It is rewarding, this knowledge of I have now."

"Did he tell you this before he died?"

"No… After… It was a vision. Shortly after he died."

I can't tell what he is thinking. Does he believe me?

"Visions. It is something I understand all too well. I understand the want to follow them, especially when it was someone you cared about telling you to do this."

I remember now. His Master has talked to him before in a vision. _*All I remember is seeing my master, like in a dream, calming me and sealing the power. He said to me 'You will never again use Satsui no Hadou.'*_

"Renee, with what you have learned, and what you will learn, what to you plan on accomplishing? Is it just the power?"

"No… no. All I know is at some point, its going to help me with something. I know there is something I need to do, or something I need to know. And I will need this knowledge I have obtained from you then. So I have to fight. And I have to keep fighting to find the answer. When I know the answer, then maybe I will know to stop. Maybe my life will be normal after that. But you are right about something. The fight _is_ everything."

He looks intrigued. "Have I ever said that to you before?"

"You tell me at least once a week that the fight is everything."

"No not that. To keep fighting till you find that answer."

A puzzled look on my face. "No. I don't think so anyway… Why?"

He sighs. "A long time ago, long before you even started following me, I was asked by someone… 'Why do you fight?' I told her 'I will keep fighting till I find that answer.' It is peculiar that you know this already, the reason to fight. It's a conversation I keep to myself for the most part."

"Maybe I am psychic…"

"Doubtful. If you were, you would be better at blocking my moves."

I frown, and make an overly sarcastic hurtful look. "That wasn't very nice, Ryu." I stick out my bottom lip, to add to my sarcasm.

He chuckles. "You can joke with me, but can't take a joke?"

I laugh. "I can take whatever you want to dish out."

He gets into a fighting stance. "Want to prove that to me?"

I match his form. "That all depends… Are you going to go easy on me?"

"Planned on it."

"Don't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Just don't kill me.

Usually when we spar, he waits for me to use the first attack. Then again, usually when we spar, he holds back. I am not sure if I am going to regret this…

He rushes me first and stops midway to perform Joudan Sokutou Geri, a very powerful thrusting side kick, which even though I blocked successfully by crossing both arms over my chest, still managed to send my ass flying backward only to forcefully back into a stupid tree. I see him powering up a Hadouken as I recover from my hard landing.

I had just enough time to jump over the blast high in the air and before I land in front of him I strike.

"Senpuu Kyaku!" I yell, only one rotation in my Hurricane kick, but successfully landing the blow to his head. He is knocked back but not knocked down. I land on my extended foot, but don't have enough time to prepare for a new attack, as Ryu goes back into the offensive.

"Shoryuken!" he yells as he uppercuts and makes contact with the side of my jaw. I dodged just enough that it wasn't a full blow but I can still feel the burn of where he made the connection. Even so, it wasn't a powerful attack, had it even made contact, wouldn't have been much more painful.

I circle Ryu, who is now on the defensive.

"I told you not to hold back."

"How do you know that I am?"

"That punch didn't hurt that bad."

He shakes his head. "I can't believe my girlfriend wants me to punch her in the face."

Did he just call me his girlfriend?

In my slight distraction of yet another word that Ryu has never said before, which made me feel the emotional explosion, he takes advantage. He runs toward me, sweeping my feet from under me. As I fall he grabs my arm and tosses me into the air, and then powers his final attack.

"Shin-ku Hadoken!"

I block as best as I can while in the air, covering my face by crossing my arms and tucking my legs in to shield my stomach. My arms and shins take in the powerful Ki blast. It feels like a thousand punches and kicks. The energy surrounding me feels hot and cold all at the same time.

I land, forcefully on my back. I don't get up. I decide I am beaten. My energy feels drained anyway.

As the forest clearing phases in and out from my dizziness, I see Ryu walk over to me and stand next to me. He bends over, and has a freaking smile on his face.

"What happened?"

"Uuunngghhh… got sidetracked."

"By what. You were doing really well. I was waiting for you to attack me next and then you left yourself open. You told me not to go easy on you, so I took advantage of that. What happened?"

"You called me your girlfriend. You have never said that before. It's a bit of a shocking word to hear from you. You aren't one for any type of endearment. Really."

He smirks, and offers his hand to help me up. I take it, since my head isn't spinning as bad anymore. After I get to my feet he lets go and takes a step back, and then bows to me. I bow in return.

"Lets go eat. You are going to need to regain your energy."

I roll my eyes. "You could say that again."

* * *

Before we ate we went to the lake and washed up from the fight. I was surprised to see that my clothes were still 100% intact, as I thought for sure there would be more damage from his final attack. He has never used that powerful of a Hadouken on me before. There are scorch marks and abrasions everywhere but no real damage. Everything will heal within a few days, or less.

While washing up, I somehow managed to catch a fish with my bare hands. He was just swimming along, and I toyed with the idea that I could catch him, but also thinking I really couldn't do it. He was squirmy and slimy and hard to hold on to, but he tasted good after being cooked and served with rice.

We did a few practice kata's before getting ready for bed. As usual I pushed my bedroll next to his, and stripped down to just my sports bra and undies, which he is used to, as I commonly wear that to bed. I sit down on my bedroll and begin to brush my hair out of its braid.

"Isn't that what you are?"

I give him a perplexed look. "What?"

"My girlfriend."

Wow, talk about delayed reaction. "I… uh… guess so. If that is what you want."

"Well, what else would you call two people that kiss and sleep together in the same… well… somewhat of the same bed?"

"Friends with benefits," I say to him jokingly, my smile so wide I show my teeth.

"Do you think of me as just a friend?"

My smile disappears and I get that look again, when you hear something so pleasurable it bursts through your skin in a shiver.

"I think you know how I think of you." The words are there. They are right there. I can't say it!

I can't handle the look in his eyes right now. They say so much, yet I don't know what they are saying exactly. Is he looking at me with love? I don't know. I can't look anymore. I roll on my back and lie down on my side of the bedroll, my left hand behind my head, and stare at the sky.

He sits next to me, his legs in front of him, but his knees bent close to his chest. I quickly glance at him and notice that he is staring at my body. I continue my gaze towards the stars.

From the corner of my eye, I see his hand move to my stomach. He traces the scars again, one by one, gently with his fingertips.

"I am sorry I didn't train you before."

"I lived," I reply, my eyes still to the sky.

"I know. And I am glad you did. He did so much to you."

"You said yourself once that I shouldn't be ashamed of the scars."

"And I still feel that way. But regardless, you have as many as you do from one fight. If I had trained you before, you may not have had so many"

"I am not ashamed anymore. Not of the scars at least."

"Is there something else you are ashamed of?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"He kissed me. I couldn't stop it."

I look over to Ryu, his face starting to look angry, his fists clenching. "He didn't suffer enough for what he did to you."

I sit up and grab his arm, gently. I work my hand down his forearm to his clamped fist, and pull his fingers apart, so mine can interlace to his. He relaxes his fist and holds my hand.

"And if I ever see him again, he will," I say to him.

He looks to me, his anger dissolving. We gaze into each others eyes for a few moments. I can see the passion igniting within them.

Still powering down from his aggression, he pushes me back down to the bed and kisses me. I was not prepared for this in the least. He hungrily opens my mouth with his tongue to slide it across my own.

His kisses start to calm down, and I expect that as he regains control he will return to his side of the bedroll and go to sleep. I try not to get too excited.

He gently kisses the side of my mouth and then begins to work his way down my jaw on the right side. He continues to travel down to my neck and then to my shoulder. Gently, he caresses the scars with his lips. As he is doing this, he takes his hand which was formerly on my hip and slowly travels upwards, tickling me with his fingertips. He traces the elastic under my sports bra with his finger, and then flattens his entire hand on my ribs. Gradually, he slips his fingers just underneath the rim of the elastic at my side.

I don't know if I can handle being denied again. Although he is as far as he has ever gotten before, it could still end early. I decide to try something that will either make or break our passion.

As his hand moves more and more underneath the side of my bra, I move my own hands to the top of his back, and steadily move my hands down over his spine till I reach the rim of his trousers. Just like before, I move my hands around to the front where the drawstring is, and make an attempt to untie him.

To my amazement, he doesn't stop me.

* * *

Note: I know you romance fans are CRAVING a lemon, but… I don't feel right posting smut on this website. For those of you that want the lemon that _**I did, in fact write**_, you will have to just send me a message, and I will gladly send it to you.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did I might have more tattoos. I just got my 5th, it's a kitty :D

Note: Having a bit of a hard time transitioning where I am at on my story and where I want it to go, so I have no idea how this chapter is going to be as far as story building, but it is going to get me where I want to go after this, I hope. Coming soon, more people we know from SF.

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Chapter 17

_"Very good, Renee."_

_ "Who is that?"_

_ "Don't you already know?"_

_ "No! What do you want from me? What is it that I need to learn? What is it going to take for you to leave me alone!"_

_ "Ah… we will meet soon, and then I will tell you..."_

_ "Why must I learn?"_

_ "Do I need to show you again?"_

The image flashes to the plateau, I am kneeling in blood and sand from the body in front of me, and it's all over my hands… It's raining… I feel each drop saturate my hair, my clothes, my skin. It doesn't wash away the red stain on my hands. Lightning flashes in the sky all around me. The crack of the thunder roars within seconds of each flash, sometimes so close, like a sonic boom. Even though this is just a vision, I still feel the vibration from the sound in my chest. And in the background, I hear Shadow Man in a sinister laugh, echoing in my brain, and even louder than the thunder.

_"No! Who is this! Show me! NOOOO!"_

"NOOOOO!" I yell, clutching my blanket while in the fetal position. My grip is so tight my fingernails cut into my palms. I do not feel the pain from it, so I unintentionally dig deeper and deeper.

"Renee, wake up, it's ok! RENEE!" Ryu shakes me, trying to wake me up.

I open my eyes and gather my bearings. I can see the clearing where we made camp. The trees are all around us with the leaves shifting in the light wind. My blanket is wrapped around my naked body. Ryu is still shaking me and shouting my name. At least I stopped screaming. I start to feel the pain in my palms.

I straighten out and roll on my back. My body is shaking, and shivering, yet I am sweating like I just had an intense workout. My hair is soaked through. I look at my hands to see the damage I have caused myself, and see the blood welling in each slit. It starts to ooze down my wrist as I look at them. Some of it manages to drip down onto my chin, and my chest. I know I need to take care of this, but I can't get my center. As I look at the blood on my hands, I flash back to the dream. I will have blood on my hands. It's not my blood. Not my blood. Who's blood?

I grit my teeth and try to focus on the sky above me. At first, I still see the dark sky, with heavy clouds, pouring rain down on me. I still see the flashes of light and the loud thunder. No, this isn't right. I squint to get a better look. Now it's right. It looks to be just before dawn.

I still hear him talking to me but I don't know what he is saying. My brain isn't translating any words to me right now. It just sounds like a mumble in the background. He tries to grab my wrists, but I pull them away. I feel him get close to me and wrap his arms around me, placing one arm under my neck. I start to feel a little more at ease, and protected. He is shielding me from danger, the only problem is, the threat is within my mind.

I finally focus enough that I can calm down and stop shaking. I don't know why the dream had such an effect on me. It has never been like this before. Ryu isn't talking to me anymore but still has me close to him, each of us wrapped in a blanket, both unclothed from our previous night. I hope he doesn't think that every time we have sex I will have nightmares and try to mutilate myself the next day. Actually, I kinda hope the next time I don't have a nightmare and try to mutilate myself either.

I sit up from him, but continue to look at my palms. I know I need to bandage this up soon. The blood streams to the middle, pooling in each crack and line of my hands. I look over to Ryu, who has apparently read my mind, who is rummaging through his soft pack to find something. Usually he has a few wraps, since scrapes and scratches are common from sparring and street fights. He takes out some white gauze, and a thin ace bandage, and gently wraps my hands, first in the gauze and then in the bandage so its tight and sealed. I flex my hands to see what kind of mobility I will have with them on, as well as to gauge the pain that might occur. Luckily it feels just like hand wraps you put on underneath boxing gloves, and the pain isn't all that bad for now.

"I'm ok," I finally say, after I assess his work on my hands.

"What happened?"

"Bad dream."

"All of that was from a bad dream?"

"I am ok now. Once I snapped out of it and realized it was just a dream."

"You hurt yourself."

"I know."

"What kind of dream did you have to cause all of this? Was it another vision? Is that why it took you so long to snap out of it?"

I sit and remain silent. Even if I wanted to tell him about the dream, I don't want to relive it at the moment. My mind isn't stable. I don't want to remember it right now.

"Are you going to answer me?"

I shake my head. "No."

He sighs and grabs me. He hugs me close and kisses my forehead. I finally look up at him to gaze into his eyes. I don't necessarily smile, but I do grin inside of my head as I see the immense concern in his expression, and the love in his eyes. I almost wish he was this person all the time, but then, we would never get anything else done, would we?

I move my lips up, closer to his for a kiss. He meets me the rest of the way, and kisses me, still holding me close, feeling as if he is still trying to protect me. I release our kiss and release myself from his grip, scooting away, grasping the blanket at my chest. I maneuver myself around to sit in front of him.

"I am ok, I promise. Thank you for wrapping my hands. The cuts are not that deep so it will heal just fine. We can… get dressed… and start our morning routine when ever you are ready."

He is silent but still staring at me, sitting up and propped up on his outstretched arms behind him. I can immediately read his eyes.

"This had nothing to do with you, or what happened last night. I have no regrets. None. Do you?" I ask. I remember one of his quotes that I have written down in my notebook. True victory is to give all of yourself, without regrets. I have a feeling I already know his answer.

He gives me half a grin and shakes his head. "No, no regrets."

"Good, now that we have that settled…" I stand up, still holding the blanket to my chest, covering my nakedness. I pick up my scattered clothing from the ground and then find my backpack to rummage around for a new set of clothes to wear. After I find everything I need, I notice Ryu is still sitting in his bedroll, staring at me, his grin getting wider.

"What?" I ask.

"Isn't it a little late to be modest?"

I respond by taking off my blanket and throwing it over his head.

* * *

After washing up, dressing, eating, and of course, morning kata's we set off in another direction, to continue our journey.

"We are about two days away from our next destination."

"Which is?"

"Gouken's Temple."

"Ah. Are we still going to train while we are there?"

"Yes of course. It's actually the perfect place to train. And when Ken shows up, and finds out that I have been training you, he will want to see what you have learned."

"I will be more than happy to show him. You think he will know… about us?"

"If you don't feel up to training as hard as we have been, it's ok. After what happened this morning, if you need a break, I am fine with that. As far as us, well, I am sure he will know just by looking at me, and will most likely harass me about it."

I twitch my lips to the side. "I feel fine now, and I don't need a break. And we don't have to tell him anything if you don't want to."

"No, I am sure I won't have to say anything. He will just know. And there is one more thing… uh…"

I raise an eyebrow.

He scratches the back of his neck and rolls his eyes upward, trying to think of a way to get the words out. "Well… uh… we have been… sleeping together… for quite some time now…"

I give him a confused look but nod my head.

"Well, it's a temple… and… well… any time there has been a girl visiting… she had her own room… not that any girls visiting had any real meaning… or relationships with me, or Ken for that matter… but still… so… I mean… I am not sure if… I mean the temple is sacred… and…" He continues to stammer over his words. I finally interrupt.

"And most likely I will have to sleep by myself in another room. I get it. It's ok." I laugh that it was so hard for him to get it out.

"Maybe Ken will bring his wife... you know, so you won't be lonley"

"Has he ever before?"

He frowns. "No."

"It's ok. I am sure we can manage. How long do you think we will stay?"

"It just depends. Ken will most likely have information on some new tournament, which there always seems to be around the same time. We usually stay at the temple if the tournament isn't too far off. So far they have been pretty big. If it takes more than one day, we go back to the temple to get in more practice. I am sure you have seen some of these matches, since you followed me for so long."

"Heard of a few. I have seen you fight in some of them but, not all the time. I didn't always have the money to get in, and I never wanted to enter because I didn't want to have to fight you then. It is different now. Are you going to let me enter?"

"I can honestly say that I don't want you to, but, if you really want to I am not going to stop you. I can't stop you from doing anything that you want to do. I know you want my permission as a Sensei, but, as a man, and a fellow fighter, you will never need it. You control your own fate."

* * *

"Holy crap this is a lot of steps."

"Yup. And every morning Ken and I had to take buckets of water on our shoulders up those steps. Sometimes if we didn't do it fast enough, we would have to do it again."

"Sounds like fun," I say, sarcastically.

"Maybe I should make you go get some water later."

"Is there a record to beat on fastest time?"

"Actually there is."

I smile showing my teeth and raise my eyebrows. "I accept that challenge!"

We both laugh.

As we walk up the steps, I think about the previous night, our last night together before we have to segregate. The more I think about it, the more I am unhappy, since I am so used to sleeping next to him. Not to mention the spark that has all of a sudden ignited after our first night of making love. I am happy to say that I did not have a nightmare this morning, so, making love and nightmares is unrelated. Still, as long as we stay here, there will be no kissing and cuddling together at night before we go to sleep. I hope I can handle it.

We make it to the top of the steps and we are greeted by an old bald man with a fu manchu mustache and goatee, holding a broom. He smiles brightly as he sees Ryu.

"Ah! Master Ryu, you have returned! And you brought a new friend with you this time… Who is this lovely young lady?"

Ryu bows to the man, and I bow as well. "Kazuta, this is Renee. Renee, this is Kazuta, he takes care of the temple"

"I am honored to meet you, Kazuta."

He bows to me in response. "The honor is mine, young lady."

Ryu walks ahead of me to talk with Kazuta. I over hear them bust just barely.

"I do not understand."

"I am training her."

"You? I never thought it would happen. But there is more here than what it seems…"

"Yes there is."

"Need I remind you about honor in the temple?"

"No, she is aware of our sleeping arrangements."

"I see. Good then. Good. Ah it's nice to have someone around again though! The little birdies in the trees and I get pretty lonely up here. And the cat doesn't come around anymore. I miss that little guy."

Ryu grins at Kazuta. "I am glad we can keep you company for a few days then."

The monk looks behind and sees me following far behind. "Young lady! Are you going to show me what Master Ryu has taught you? It's been so long since I have seen anyone else, besides Master Ken and Master Ryu use the old style. I am curious…"

"Of course! It has been a few days since training since we didn't stop much trying to get here."

"Ahh! Good, good."

* * *

After we got settled into our rooms we went outside to begin the days lesson. I was hoping today I could get something to manifest in my Hadouken.

I bow to my Sensei and get in my position. He returns the bow, and also gets into his stance for a Hadouken blast, expecting me to mimic him. I watch as the energy gathers in a blue flaming ball in between his hands, as it normally appears. I match him in my attempt, holding my hands into the familiar position at my side, and begin to manifest my miniature lightning storm. Like before, the sparks of each bolt zap in between my palms. Except… Now it feels slightly different. Through my still bandaged hands, I feel the bolts connect to my still healing nail gashes, each shock shooting a slight pain up to my fingers.

Since he cannot let his energy ball gather any more Ki, as it might do more damage than he intends, he releases it into the sky. My storm continues to sting my hands, and through each shock it causes my fingers to reflex and twitch. It doesn't necessarily hurt, but it's starting to annoy me. I try to focus the strikes away from the slits to ease my aggravation. To my surprise, my focus on this causes the strikes to stop midway between my hands, no longer shocking my skin.

"Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. It seems to be working," Ryu says to me.

I concentrate even more on the energy in my hands. Slowly, the strikes emanating from each hand start to roll in the middle, creating a bright pulsating yellow light. At the moment it is only marble sized, but it is still something different than what I have produced before.

I try to feed it more, but I have been trying for so long to generate something that I can start to feel my energy drain. I need to get rid of it now and try again, now that I have a better idea what to do.

"Hadouken!" I yell, pushing my hands from my sides, and out towards Ryu. My little marble shoots towards him, still pulsating white and yellow, with small blue sparks zapping all around it. Ryu blocks the energy and it hits his arm. I hear it make a pop as it makes contact, and then it disappears.

"That was… good. I think," Ryu says.

"You think?"

"It is progress for sure, but still odd. I have hardly seen anyone manifest Ki the way you do."

"Ah, Master Ryu, I have seen something similar to that before. You should recognize it as well," The monk caretaker, Kazuta says.

"It does seem somewhat familiar. I can't place it. Where have you seen it?" Ryu asks Kazuta.

"You were already on your journey, at the time, at Gouken's request. When Gouki came back to have a rematch with Gouken, I witnessed it, as you already know. I have seen something similar to this from Gouki's own hands."

"No… This is not Satsui no Hadou!" I yell, throwing my hands down.

"Please explain." Ryu asks, calmly.

"No, Miss Renee, it is not Satsui no Hadou. However when Gouki fights, and uses his power, it is sometimes a black electricity masked in a dark flame. I did not see any darkness, and I don't feel Satsui no Hadou from you. I am sure Ryu would have felt it as well, had it been that."

"Thank you. And he is right, which is why I wasn't alarmed. I do remember now, from when I fought Gouki myself. The energy looks similar, but it feels different. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

I sigh in relief. Besides, the chances that my quarter Japanese bloodline is what, one in a million? More like one in a few billion. But at least I managed to manifest a partial Hadouken!

"So tell me what you did different this time, Renee," Ryu asks.

"The sparks were hurting the cuts on my hands, so I was trying to focus them away from the cuts so it would stop. I mean, it didn't hurt so bad that I couldn't handle it, just an annoyance really. I wanted it to stop. I guess the real test is going to be when my hands fully heal. Or I am going to have to keep cutting my hands up like a stupid emo kid."

"That is interesting. And I would rather you not have to cut up your hands. You shouldn't have to sacrifice your blood to become more powerful, unless its blood you shed from your opponent in a fight."

"Do you want me to try again?"

"It is getting late. There is no telling what time Ken will be here, if he even decides to show up tomorrow. He could be a few more days off. I think we should turn in and get some sleep." I hear his stomach growl. "Or rather, eat and then get some sleep.."

"Ah, Master Ryu, I see you have the same appetite as always. Lucky for you I made some rice balls!"

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Note: Hmmm… one of the longer chapters I have written. No matter, I know where I want to go from here. If this chapter sucks let me know… At this time this is the best I can do after thinking and trying for 4 days! Geez…

And just because I want to ramble…(you can just skip this if you want) I made some stir fry the other day, and I made the most AWESOME sticky rice! Unfortunately the stir fry went on top of it so it lost the sticky, but I was thinking, OMG I could make some kick ass rice balls with this! But alas, there wasn't any left when my family was done eating my dinner… I hope I can make good sticky rice again!

Oh yea one more thing! (Again, just rambling!) I had the weirdest dream the other day! All I am gonna say is… it was about… Animated Stick Figure Racing Zombies… That is all.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about my hair color being OK for a job. Otherwise it would be pink and purple right now.

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Chapter 18

Have you ever been in a situation where you are used to sleeping next to someone, and then all of a sudden, they are no longer sleeping next to you? You have to sleep in a bed all by yourself… lying there for hours, your mind flashing images of previous nights with them, intimate and not intimate alike. I mean, sometimes you think that even when your significant other was right there next to you, were you even paying attention to that fact? Or maybe, you went to bed early, but knew that at some point they would be next to you, and you fall asleep just fine. When your mind knows that there will be no warm body next to you that night, it doesn't shut down like it should. I hate it.

Maybe that doesn't happen to everyone. It happened to me. I was comfortable enough in the bed, and I was worn out from our training. Plus we had a good meal, thanks to Kazuta, and I was full enough from that to go into a food coma. Once my head hit the pillow, my mind immediately went to previous nights of sleeping with Ryu. And it was mostly the small things, like how I make sure some part of our bodes touch, even if it's just my foot touching his foot. Or my forehead just on the outside of his shoulder while I lay on my side. Or the way he has his hand on my stomach when he is on his side and I am on my back. Then to make things worse, I move my foot, as if I am searching for his. Or I go on my side and lean my head forward, expecting to make contact with him. Or I caress my belly, searching for his touch. It drove me nuts.

I managed to fall asleep, but it seems like every other hour or so, I would wake up and search for him in my surroundings. Of course I then realize he isn't there and go back to tormenting myself with those little details again. I have no idea how much sleep I actually got, but I know it wasn't much at all.

I get up and put some sweatpants on and make my way to the bathroom, rubbing my eyes and yawning from lack of sleep. When I look in the mirror, I see the dark circles under my eyes, slightly swollen. I brush my teeth, and wash my face with cold water, hoping that it will reduce the bags but it doesn't help much.

When I walk out of the bathroom, I notice Ryu is sitting out front on the steps, his head appearing to be cradled in his hands, which are propped up on his knees. He doesn't seem to be moving. I walk over to him while brushing my hair as I prepare to put it in a new braid.

He hears me coming and lifts his head up and looks behind him. I see very similar dark bags, and his eyes are at a half squint, even though it's just after dawn and the sun isn't in his face at all. He looks just about as tired as I feel.

"Do I even have to ask how you slept?" I say, my voice sounding gruff and groggy.

He exhales a large sigh, and puts his head back into his hands. I sit next to him on the steps, about 6 inches away. I continue to brush my long, wavy, golden hair. He turns his head to the side as he watches my fingers, like usual, as I work in my braid.

"Your hair is very long. Have you ever thought about cutting it?" He asks.

"Yea, all the time. It's annoying this long. It's a bitch to brush, and I hate having to do it every morning."

"… Then why don't you cut it?"

"I haven't cut it for almost… 5 years now. I probably won't any time soon either. My mom had long hair. My dad loved it. He would always say to me that she had the prettiest hair and that every time she cut it short, he wanted to cry. He had three braids of hers, from each time she grew it out and cut it short. Any time I have cut my hair, it was only to the middle of my back. I kept it long for him. The last time I cut it was before he died. I don't want to cut it again because of that."

He reaches out his had to touch my hair as soon as I am done braiding it. He works his fingers over each knot, starting from my shoulder, and ending at the rubber band, and then going back up to my shoulder again. He places his hand on my shoulder and rubs it with his thumb like he always does. My eyes go to his hand first, and then travel up his arm. I continue to travel up the length of his arm and shoulder till I reach his lips, and stop there for a moment. I take in a deep breath and then look into his eyes. He looks insanely tired, but manages to look sweet and caring as he is staring back into my eyes.

"I didn't sleep well. From the looks of it, you didn't either," I say, still gazing into him.

"No, I didn't. It reminded me of the time you were in the hospital. I didn't sleep very well for a few days after that either."

I bring my head down to stare at the ground. He slides in closer to me, and puts his arm around my waste. "How long do we have to stay here?"

"Tomorrow is the day Ken and I go visit Gouken. After that, it just depends on what information he has, and how close the place we go to after that is. The tournaments are usually in Kabuki Town, and sometimes they can be a few days. It's close enough that we can stay here, so we don't have to pay for a place to stay… Even though Ken is usually more than willing to pay. I don't like making him or myself spend any money if it isn't necessary. Whatever happens, happens. We will have to be patient."

"Patient. I can do patient. What kind of fighter would be I if I couldn't do patience." I sigh heavily, thinking about sleeping by myself for the next week. I will have to do my best to not show any frustration or sadness.

I sit up straight and look back into his eyes. I inch toward him. He does the same. I turn my head and move in for a kiss. Our lips are almost touching… when…

"Come on kid, hurry up!" someone says. We both hear it. It's coming from the front, by the steps.

We both slide away from each other at the same time, putting a lot of distance between us. I couldn't help but smile and chuckle. I had to cover my mouth to hide it from him, and our visitor, who I was expecting to be Ken… and someone else.

Finally, we see Ken, his long blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, wearing a nice brown sports coat, white dress shirt, brown slacks and shiny as hell black shoes. He also has a good sized backpack over his shoulder. Trailing behind him is a cute girl with short brown hair, and a white headband on her forehead. She is wearing a loose fitting t-shirt and sweat pants, and bright red tennis shoes. Where have I seen this girl before?

"Ryu, my man! Long time no see!" Ken happily greets his friend with a single wave above his head, and a giant cheese grin on his face.

Ryu stands up and walks over to return the happy greeting. I decide to follow behind him but a few feet away. Ryu and Ken shake hands for a moment but then go in for a friendly hug. I noticed as they are in their quick hug, Ken's eyes trail over to me. I didn't get a chance to get into my normal training gear so I am still standing there in sweats and a sports bra. This has to be awesome for a first meeting.

"Whoa!" Ken says as he releases Ryu and continues to eye me up and down. "No offense to you miss, but… Ryu who is the babe?"

I turn my head to the side and cover my giggling face for a moment. Ryu doesn't appear to be in any discomfort to my surprise, and is able to answer him without a stutter.

"This is my pupil, Renee. Renee, this is Ken Masters. And the girl behind him is Sakura."

I bow to Ken and Sakura. "I am honored to meet you, Ken Masters and Sakura."

They bow in return. "The pleasure is definitely mine," Ken replies. Sakura looks a little unnerved and agitated, and gives me a wide yet obvious fake smile.

"Pupil hmm? Renee, how the hell did you manage to get this guy to be your Sensei? You are the first one I have ever heard of being successful! I hear lots of people have tried!" Ken says as he moves his eyeballs towards Sakura and then back to me.

"It wasn't easy. I can tell you that much. Also, before I forget, I wanted to thank you for paying my hospital bill. I am forever in your debt."

"Oh that was you! Ryu, the sly dog, didn't tell me anything really. Just said a friend of his got hurt and would probably need the assistance. I am happy to help… Although I don't think I mind having a fox like you in my debt," Ken says, as he winks at me. "But it looks like the hospital stay was warranted… The scars… Are those the reason why you were there?"

I nod. "Yes. Lets just say, the fighter Vega didn't like me kicking him in the face."

"That Spanish pansy is still around? Well I am glad you recovered. Well it looks like I have some explaining to do myself. I bet you are wondering why a happily married man has a cute young girl following him around."

"Yes, I was wondering that myself," Ryu says.

"Well it turns out, after Sakura pursued you, she found ol' pinky Danny boy, and tried to get him to train her. I was just walking around, saw his dojo, and saw through the window what he was trying to do to the poor girl. When he saw me, he, of course, looked like he was about to shit his pants. Sakura recognized me right away, and I am pretty sure at that point she knew Danny boy was probably not the best Sensei, so she began pursing me. You know me, I can't say no to a cute girl!"

"Sakura, I am glad you are getting the guidance you need. I am sure Ken is a good Sensei," Ryu says, nodding to Sakura.

Her eyes light up like stars, and she looks like she is about to burst. I can tell she wants to tell Ryu that she would rather have him as her teacher, but she holds it in. Instead she just nods with a smile on her face.

Ken throws his bag to Ryu, and he catches it. Ken faces me and gets into a fighting stance. "Renee, how about you show me what your Sensei has taught you?"

Even though my facial reaction is *You are going to fight in that?*, I smirk and get into my position as well. "No problem."

Ryu and Sakura back away, giving me and Ken room to spar. When they are a good distance away, Ken nods to me and I nod back.

I charge towards Ken, hoping to make the first attack. I normally wear shoes when I spar but I didn't have time, and I feel each rock dig into my feet as I run towards him. They should be conditioned enough to handle it, but it still hurts a little. Ken, having already powered up also makes a move.

"Hadouken!" he yells as a red and blue fiery Ki blast heads my way.

I jump over the blast still in my run towards him. As I make my way down from my jump, I strike before I land.

"Senpuu Kyaku!" I yell as I rotate into a Hurricane Kick. I make contact with his shoulder, but it seems he was well prepared for it, as he hardly moved at all.

I land a little harder on my feet than I expected and try to jump away, but Ken jabs me quickly in the jaw as I try to dodge. His second punch, a right hook, I manage to block with my arm. The punch had quite a bit of force behind it, so even though I blocked, I slide backwards in the dirt a couple of feet.

"Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku!" Ken yells as he goes into his Huricane Kick. His spins are insanely fast, much faster that Ryu's. I block each rotation successfully. He must have landed 8 or 9 blows to my blocking arm. While he is much faster in this attack, the blows are not as forceful as Ryu's. Still, if I wasn't able to block, I am sure I would have ended up in the dirt.

As he lands, I use Joudan Sokutou Geri, the backwards thrusting kick, enhanced with some Ki. I land the blow to his chest successfully and he is sent flying backwards. He lands hard on the ground, but quickly recovers, kicking himself up. As soon as he is standing he rushes towards me.

I try to do my Hadouken, but before I can even get a spark, Ken is in my face. He grabs me by the shoulder and rolls backwards. It was familiar, as Ryu has done this to me before, except again, Ken is much faster in the roll, and actually rolls me with him at least two times, his foot at my gut, the terrain making itself familiar with my back, before he kicks me into the air. The momentum in this sends me flying higher than I expected. I land with one foot and one hand to the ground, my other leg extended., my other arm straight behind me for balance.

He runs towards me again, covering the distance between us, and I decide to meet him in the middle. Just before we meet, I charge up my Ki again for another Hurricane Kick.

"Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku!" I yell, with all of my energy in my spins, my legs popping and sparking with electrical energy. I land a few hits on my rotations before he blocks. As I land, I can see the fire in his eyes. This doesn't look good for me.

"Shoryuken!" Ken yells, as he uppercuts me, his fist making contact with my chin, and forcing me off the ground. His arm is engulfed in flames, as he follows me upward into the air. I can feel the burning heat, and the pain of his punch to my jaw. Luckily I didn't hear it crack or pop, but it hurts all the same. I fall backwards, his fist slipping off of my chin. My brain is so rattled I can't land properly, and fall on my shoulder and slide a few inches, the ground burning into my skin with the friction. When I stop, I roll onto my back and try to focus on the sky. My head is swirling in dizziness.

"I'm ok," I cry out, just in case anyone is worried. "Just give me a second or two here…"

"Take your time, babe. Hope I didn't hit you too hard."

I take a deep breath and sit up. My head is still spinning slightly, so I decide not to get up yet. "I don't think you broke anything." I look at my shoulder and brush it off. I have some road rash abrasions but, nothing too serious. I massage my jaw where his punch landed. It feels tender and hot, but most likely won't bruise. Thank god for sparring on a regular basis, since it conditions your body to be able to take this kind of ass kicking.

"You did very well, Renee. Your energy is amazing. I almost wish I gave you enough time to fire off your Ki blast. You will have to demonstrate it for me soon," He says as he walks over to me, and offers his hand to help me up. I accept it and finish brushing myself off when I stand. He gives me a wink, and then bows. I bow in return. "Ryu, so far so good. How does it feel being a Sensei?"

"It's easy with her. She already knew quite a bit before she approached me. But other than that, it has been nice. It's a little more rewarding than I thought it would be."

"For sure! I was lucky too, with Sakura here. She just needs some fine tuning here and there, and she is good to go on her own!"

"Speaking of Sakura. It's has been a long time since we have sparred. I also wish to know how good of a Sensei Ken is. Sakura?"

She gets an excited smile on her face. "Yea! Lets do it!"

* * *

Note: A bit of a twist in the lore here of course. We all know Ken really didn't train Sakura, but, she was my most logical choice in a companion and trainee with Ken. I sure as hell didn't want Dan around. Although his pink gi is funny on him. Bah millions of you guys have stuff that isn't quite what its supposed to be :P


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, my Anime and video game collection would be huge!

Note: Chapters are farther between now because I got caught up to what I actually had written. I usually write about 2 to 3 chapters at a time and then post one every day or so, but once I got to Chapter 16, I was caught up, so now it's, as I write and finish a chapter, I get it beta read, and then post it. Sometimes as I am waiting for my beta reader, I write another chapter, or most of one. Also, some distractions as of late have been Inuyasha, as all of the episodes from the series are on Netflix instant queue. I might add that to the list of fan fictions I read since I am so far really enjoying the series!

* * *

Chapter 19

"Correct me if I am wrong, and I hope I am, but I have never known Ryu to be the type that gets seduced into anything, let alone training someone," Ken says to me as we watch Ryu and Sakura spar. "If it were me before I was married, for sure, but him. No way."

I give Ken a half smirk and roll my eyes. "I didn't seduce him into training me. And you are right. He isn't easy to seduce into anything. Not that I tried… that hard."

Ken smiles and chuckles. We are barely paying any attention to Ryu and Sakura's sparring session. I can tell that Ken wants to ask me a million questions. "So then, how did you do it?"

I know once I say it, he is going to think I am crazy. Hell, it might change his opinion of me altogether but at this point, why hide it. "I stalked him for 3 years. It took him 2 and a half of those to finally sense me. I think he was impressed by that, but he still wouldn't train me. Even after the fight with Vega. But after I recovered, I still continued to follow him, although it was more side by side than trailing behind him. I figured patience would be on my side. It took a while. A long while. He finally let up though."

"Wait, did you just tell me you _stalked_ him? And he didn't sense you for most of that time? What are you?"

I lower and scrunch my eyebrows and purse my lips. "What do you mean 'what am I?'"

He laughs at me for a moment. "He is good at sensing others that are able to harness Ki. Those of us that can use the energy usually have a sense to it. I am sure you can as well. Either way, he seems a little different. And I am sure it has everything to do with you."

"Probably. If you ask him, he might tell you I am just a thorn in his side."

"I am sure that isn't true. He is very loyal guy, especially if he truly thinks of you as a friend. I am lucky enough to have that status. There are a few others, but, I am sure it has been years since he has seen any of our old friends. Hell I haven't even seen our old friends in a while. But still… Something still seems off about him. I still think it's your fault."

I laugh quietly. "Well, whatever you feel is different about him, is it bad?"

Ken rolls his eyes upwards and raises his eyebrows, and smirks to the side, trying to think of a good answer. "Hmm… I am not sure yet. Is there anything you want to tell me?" He winks at me and grins, showing his pearly whites.

I give him a half surprised look. "No there isn't really anything I _want_ to tell you.. Besides even if there was something to tell you, I don't think it is my place to do so. Aren't we supposed to be watching them?" I eyeball towards Ryu and Sakura, still engaged in their match. Sakura just got knocked down from a Hurricane Kick, but recovers quickly, and powers herself up for a Hadouken.

"Naw, I know how good she is. And I know he will beat her. Besides, at the moment you are more interesting. You know if you don't tell me what's going on I am just going to find out from him, right?"

I change the subject. "She doesn't like me very much, does she?"

"Who, Sakura? Well… you did manage to get her favorite guy in the whole entire world to train you, when she tried for such a long time. Plus, she thinks she is in love with him. I am sure you being a girl yourself will trigger some extra jealousy in her. She will get over it." He playfully punches me in the arm. "What about you, do you think you are in love with him too?"

I avoid his question, and try to get off the subject of Ryu again. "I remember seeing her. You are right, she did try. He was always nice to her though. He tried to pull the same thing with me though. Said he didn't think he has mastered it himself so he didn't have the right to train anyone else with it. I thought she gave up."

"No, she never gave up. She couldn't follow him like she wanted to but she became obsessed. Tried to get any piece of information she could find. When she lost him, she would ask around if anyone had seen him. Anytime he was close to her again, she would try again. They have sparred before too. She is always trying to prove her worth, in hopes of one day being trained by him. I am sure, even now, if he were to agree to it, she would leave my guidance in a heartbeat. It's ok though. To be young, and have an idol." He smiles at the thought. "Really. How did you do it? I stand by what I said before, he is hard to convince when it comes to something that he doesn't feel he is ready to do."

I twitch a half smirk to the side, trying to think of an answer. There is silence between us for a few moments. "I already knew quite a bit. I probably learned as much as I did the same way Sakura did, by watching and mimicking. I never let up on following him, and he really never complained. We shared food, campfires, even street fights sometimes. I forcefully wedged myself in his life and he never really protested. I am sure he was annoyed by it but never verbally told me so. Well, one time he did but I did kind of deserved it. He saved my life you know."

"From Vega?"

I look down and sigh. I have only cried about it once, and I don't want to cry again. I try to breathe a little before I answer, so I can keep my composure. Finally I answer. "Yes, from Vega. He was going to kill me. It wasn't against the rules either. I just remember seeing his face and then his claw, descending to pierce me in the heart. I turned my head because I didn't want to watch. Next thing I know, I am being cradled by Ryu, who is telling me to focus on staying alive. And then I was in a coma for a while, but I felt him there at first. He left eventually. I found him again, once I was able to walk."

I look at Ken, who has a stern face, but sad eyes, hearing my story for the first time. "Was it sympathy? Is that why he is training you?"

:"No. I don't think that is it. Even when I found him again it was months before he decided to teach me. Ironically, he decided on it once I tried to leave. He had to chase me for once. I think at that point I knew that he thought of me as his… friend."

Ken raises an eyebrow as he looks at my face. I stare back, as expressionless as I can be. "Just friends?"

I smile at him. I was running out of subjects to derail to. Thankfully, we are interrupted by Ryu and Sakura just finishing their sparring session, Ryu knocking her down for the final time with an unblocked Hadouken. They bow to each other.

"You are much better now, Sakura. I can really tell. Pretty soon you will be kicking the crap out of Ken over there," Ryu says to Sakura, smiling.

"Thank you so much!" Sakura says, bowing again, her headband tails flipping over her head.

Clapping is heard from the steps at the temple. "Very good Master Ryu, Miss Sakura. To you as well Master Ken and Miss Renee. I am sure after all of that, you must be famished! If someone would be so kind as to get some water from the well at the bottom of the mountain, I will prepare something to eat!" Kazuta says, with a bright smile on his face.

I take this as a better opportunity to dodge Ken and his questions. "I will go!"

I walk over to the patio. I notice Kens expression giving Sakura a stern look for a moment. "I will go too," she says, sounding like a kid who just got asked to do unwanted chores. We both grab a bucket from the porch and make our way down the long path of steps.

* * *

RYU POV

I watch Renee and Sakura head for the path to the steps, each with a water bucket in hand. Renee seems surprisingly happy, bouncing around and twirling, her long braid circling around her as she spins, both her hands clutching the handle of the water bucket. I sense quite a bit of anxiety from Sakura, so it is possible Renee is just trying to lighting the mood for her. Once I no longer see their bobbing heads as they go down the steps, I walk over to Ken. He has a wide grin on his face, and I can tell at any moment now he is going to start to grill me.

"Man, we should have made them take all the buckets so they could come back up those steps like we used to, back in the day," he says, the smile still extensive.

"Knowing those two, and how competitive they are, I am sure they would race to the top to see who gets here the fastest."

"Ha! Maybe we should have an accident and dump the buckets when they get back just so we can see that!"

We both laugh together at the image. I could see Renee picking up the water bucket and breaking it over Ken's head, yelling "You – did – that – on – purpose!" with each hit.

"Well buddy, I gotta tell you… something about you has changed. I have a feeling it has to do with her. She wouldn't tell me anything. So, has a women finally broken down that wall of yours, or what?"

"You jump right in, don't you Ken," I reply, chuckling.

"What? You gotta tell your best friend! How many nights did I keep you up after I met Eliza? You know, talking about her all night. Telling you I thought I was in love with her after we dated for a while. Hell, I think you were the only person that knew I wanted to propose to her when that day finally came! And then you said-"

"I never thought you would settle down," we say together at the same time.

"You remember what I said to you after that, Ryu?"

I exhale a small sigh. "Yea. You asked me when I was going to settle down."

"Uh huh. And you said 'When I know and accept my path, maybe I will think about it.' So does this mean you know your path?"

"No. I am still on my search to discover the meaning of being a true warrior. She has a mission too. We fight together, even though our quests are a bit different."

"Well, from what she said, I almost thought she was a crazy fan girl like Sakura. I mean, she stalked you for 3 years? Don't you think that is a little creepy?"

"No, there is more to it than that. I was actually amazed she was able to hide from me for so long. But she knows she has something to fight for. But I know she hasn't figured out what it is yet. She told me that when she finds the answer, she will know that she can stop fighting. Just like if I keep fighting, I will understand."

"And what if she finds her answer before you do? Are you just going to let her go?"

I remain silent to the question. I am not sure how to answer. It is something I have thought of often. Will I give up my fight so I can be around her if she is content with what she finds? If I continue, will she continue to follow me? And if she did decide to do that, how will I feel about it, making someone who cares for me continue on my journey, when she may not want to.

"Do you love her?" Ken asks.

"Do I even know what it is? I loved Gouken, but as a father. I care for my friends. I care for her."

"Obviously, since you saved her life. Then again, I know you. You care a lot about people in general. You always want to help, especially if someone is in need. But let me tell you something. When I met Eliza, I had a feeling. I didn't flirt as much with other girls, even if it was just playful and harmless. I counted days, then hours, then minutes to our next date. I dreamed about her constantly. After we spent more time together, when we were apart, I missed her like you wouldn't believe. I contemplated calling her just to hear her pick up the phone and say 'Hello.' I lost my center when fighting. It was so bad, she could have asked me to stop street fighting, and martial arts, and I would have done it for her. It was those moments, I knew I loved her, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Even now, she is at home, probably sleeping, and I want to call her just to tell her I love her and I miss her. I hate being away from her. Do you ever feel like that? "

"It's complicated. We don't… go on dates. I have never been interested in flirting. I always left that to you. She is always around, so… I don't count minutes if she is away, because she is never away. There have been only two times now that she really has been away. But one was my choice, and the other was hers."

"Ok. Not to sound like a therapist here, but, how did that make you feel?"

"The first time was when she was at the hospital. I left her there, because I didn't want her to follow me anymore. I didn't want her to get hurt anymore. But, I guess you could say I did miss her being around. It took me a few weeks to get back into the flow of things, but I did eventually. It was months before she caught up to me again. The second time she was away… she left. But, in a way I made her do that too. Something… stupid happened and I pushed her away and she left."

"She told me a little about that. I tried to get her to tell me what happened but she wouldn't budge. She's a little firecracker isn't she? You know you are going to have to tell me what happened, or I will just have to ask her in front of you." He pokes me in the arm as he says this to me, winking and smirking at me. "You want to save her from embarrassment right?"

"I don't think she is easily embarrassed. She is pretty good at keeping her cool."

"Stop trying to change the subject! Something stupid happened and…."

"She cried."

"You made her cry?"

"No, no. She cried, because of what happened to her. I was surprised, because it had been a few months since she was injured, and she never talked about it, and she never looked sad. It wasn't till I saw her body for the first time since the fight that she started crying."

"And you saw her body because…"

"She wanted to swim with me, at a nearby lake."

"So she _was_ trying to seduce you! I knew it…"

I roll my eyes. "I am not sure of what her intentions where that day, but she didn't think it through. She didn't 'seduce' me into anything, before you ask. I couldn't stand seeing her about to cry like that, so I held on to her, and she let it out. I know she needed to. She probably wanted to for a while. When she started letting up, I… touched her cheeks. She closed her eyes like she wanted to kiss me and I backed off. It pissed her off too, and she yelled at me… but I pushed her away again, and I got angry with her. So she left."

"Ah. And then you went after her. Yup, its love. That proves it right there."

"How does it prove anything?"

"If you didn't feel anything for her you would have let her leave. Sure, you would have been distracted for a few weeks but then, Big Tough Ryu would be over it and back on his journey, only occasionally thinking of the girl that got away…" he says, with a flutter in a mockingly high pitched voice, holding his hands together at his cheek while rolling his eyes to the sky.

I punch him in the arm. "Stop it."

"Aw, there is nothing to be ashamed of, buddy! I am actually happy you finally found a girlfriend. Everything seems to fit. She is girly in all the right places, but I know from fighting her that she is tough. She is probably just as surprised that she fell in love with you."

I smile at the thought. Although I have known for quite some time how she feels about me.

"I like her. She has great potential. And she can put up with you and your mysterious ways." He gets a devilish grin. "So have you two-"

"Are you really gonna ask me that!" I yell, interrupting him.

"Ha ha! Bow chicka wow-wow! I thought this day would never come! So did you make a lot of noise, or what?"

"I am not discussing this with you."

"Aw come on! Didn't you know this is what guys _really_ do in their spare time when they hang out with their pals?"

I give him an uncompromising look.

"Ok, ok, forget I asked anything."

* * *

Note: My chapters seem to be getting longer… Does that mean I am getting better at this whole writing deal? Anyway… a bit fluffy. I really do write some pretty happy stuff don't I. Lets see… next chapter… a little more happiness, some dialog about a tournament that we all know is going to happen… probably the tournament after that in another chapter… Hopefully that isn't fluffy… And just so you know. My outline on the tourney is only page 6 of the outline, and I have a total of 11 pages of outline, so I guess you could call that a little past the halfway point, as I have SOO much more story to tell after that! Plus I keep getting all these new ideas. The outline was originally 8 and a half pages and now its 11 full pages. My brain is just insane sometimes. Hope you are prepared .


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom. If I did, I would be going to Within Temptations concert in New York. (I live in Vegas, and plane tickets to there are hella expensive!)

Note: Back to Renee POV. I am in such a fluffy mood too. I just finished InuYasha (196 episodes I believe) and it left me in super fluff, but also sad mode. Sad because when you have such a good ending to a series, you never want it to end. Hence the reason I think people read and write fanfictions, I mean really, when you enjoyed something so much, why just leave it there? Your mind has to continue it and if you think of something awesome, then you just have to write it down, right? Although I don't have any ideas for a fic based on InuYasha, I will be dreaming about out for a while for sure. Anyway… On with the show!

* * *

Chapter 20

We were silent the entire way down the steps and to the well. I tried to act happy and bouncy, but she just continued along, looking a little perturbed and trying her best to ignore me and my twirling. I have a pretty good idea how she feels about me. I hope to at least get on her good side.

I decided that on our way back up, I had to break the silence.

"Do you like training with Ken?

She keeps her face forward, but I can see the pupil of her eye in the corner as I walk beside her. She keeps her lips tight, almost in a scowl. She only gives me an affirmative "Mmm" sound.

"Is there a reason you won't talk to me?"

She walks up the steps a bit faster so she is a few feet in front of me. I am sure she had already determined before that she didn't want to speak to me. She probably doesn't ever want to talk to me. Not that I want to stoop down to the grudging teenager level here but, I don't want to spend what will most likely be the next few days with someone that is going to treat me this way. I jump ahead of her and face her, walking backwards up the steps.

"I thought you were going to be better than this, Sakura. You have grown up a little since the last time I saw you when you were a teenager in middle school. I didn't really know your personality then, but I am sure it wasn't like this, or Ken wouldn't be teaching you."

At first she looked angry, especially since I blocked her from being able to get ahead of me, but now she looks shocked. "You have been with him that long?" She says to me, with an annoyed and pouty look.

"In a sense, I suppose. I followed him, just like you wanted to. But I didn't fancy myself in love with him at first sight of him, or what he could do. And it wasn't the power of what he could do that made me pursue him either, before you go thinking that."

"Hmmph. But you are in love with him, aren't you?"

I raise an eyebrow to the question. I was hoping I wasn't that easy to read. "Why do you think that?"

Her eyes get a dreamy and glazed look. "You have been with him for such a long time, and it's Ryu. Maybe you weren't in love at first sight, but you have spent so much time with him. Any girl would have to be in love with him by now!"

I close my eyes and giggle. "So you think just because I spent so many years stalking him, and convinced him to train me that I should automatically be in love with him?"

She takes a deep breath and turns her head to the side to exhale, her expression back to a glower.

"If I told you I was, you would just be even more angry with me."

She looks into my eyes, searching them for any truth in my statement on whether I just admitted I was in love with him or not. "I… I wouldn't be angry, because I couldn't blame you for it. I… might be jealous if he felt the same way."

I turn around and match her pace, walking side by side. "I don't want to upset you when I say this but… I _think_ he does."

Her expression turns interested. "You think?"

"Well I am sure you know, he isn't the easiest person to read. Sometimes his eyes give away a lot but he is a master of hiding emotions. He has never told me how he feels. Even when he apologizes to me, I can't hear it in his voice, but sometimes I can truly see it in his eyes. Maybe I have seen love in his eyes, but I am too much of a girl to really see it, because I really do want to hear it. I may just have to be satisfied with it being wordless."

She looks down at the bucket she is holding in front of her, and takes each step a little slower. I am sure I just made her a little more depressed by what I said.

"I… I think he does," she says to me calmly.

I stop for a moment, and stand on the steps. I cock my head to the side. "What?"

"You are right. He never lets his true feelings show in his words or his expression, but his body movement, and his eyes, they don't always hide it." She stops and turns around. "When you were sparring with Ken, Ryu didn't take his eyes off of you. When you landed a blow, he almost twitched a smile. If you were knocked down, his body almost said that it wanted to go to you. And then when we fought, occasionally I saw his eyes glance to you for just a moment before he started focusing on me. If he doesn't love you, then he cares for you very much."

She turns around and starts heading back up the stairs. I stand for just a few moments, taking this all in. It has always just been me and Ryu. I have never had a third party around to tell me how he looks at me. I know there have been times where I have caught him, but I can probably quadruple the times he has caught me staring at him. Plus he never had the dreamy eyed look. That might just be a girl thing. I smile brightly at the thought and continue my way up stairs.

"Thank you, Sakura. I hope we can be friends someday."

"Mmm."

Although I do wish to be friends with Sakura, I still think she doesn't feel the same way, at least not yet. Our conversation didn't continue after that, despite my efforts of playing around, walking circles around her, and humming songs. Actually I think it might have annoyed her even more. I exhale a large sigh before we reach the top and match her pace up the stairs, looking down at each step I take.

When we got closer to the top, near the entryway, I could hear the loud laughter of Ken and the slight chuckle of Ryu.

*To be a fly on the wall right now…* I thought, wanting to know what was so funny.

They were both sitting on the bottom two steps of the doorway to the temple and both stop laughing as they see me and Sakura make our way through the dirt path on the way to them. Ken wipes tears away from his eyes from his moments of hilarity from Ryu. We both set our water buckets down at the top of the temples steps.

"What was so funny?" I ask.

Ken, still calming down some, slightly giggling in between says "A strong warrior shouldn't fear anything! And yet… you both…" He starts laughing hysterically again.

Ryu punches Ken in the shoulder, and he falls over to his side, still in his amusement of whatever his thought was. I scratch my temple, trying to think of anything between us that would be funny. Did I have any funny stories of myself and Ryu?

"Um…"

"The spider," Ryu says, with an annoyed face.

I giggle a little, remembering the time.

"And… and…" Ken says between breaths, "You killed it with… with a…" he clenches his belly and then starts rolling on the ground.

I cover my mouth to surpress the sound of my laughter.

"With what? I want to know!" Sakura says curiously.

I look to Ryu who has the "please save me the embarrassment" look on his face. I can't help but giggle more, and turn to Sakura to explain. "Well, there was this one day, we were eating by the campfire, probably a good 12 inches between us, when we both noticed out of the corner of our eyes, at the exact same time, a huge spider crawling between us. I blame it on being girly, but of course I jumped up and away from it as quick as possible. I probably screamed a little…"

"You screamed."

"Ok ok, I screamed. And even though you didn't scream you still got up and jumped away just as quick as I did!"

"I don't like spiders."

"Well I know that now. The argument was a bit funny though." I chuckle a little before continuing. "So I told him to step on it… and he said:

'I don't have any shoes on!'

'You NEVER have any shoes on! Do you know how many bugs and spiders you have probably unknowingly stepped on?'

'At least I didn't know when I was doing that! Thanks! Now I am going to think about that every time I step on something that squishes!'

'Wear shoes!'

'I don't like shoes!'

'For god's sake, its shoes or spiders! Take your pick!'

We stood there for quite a bit, and that stupid spider just sat there, where it was before, probably laughing at us inside its tiny little brain. So I told him again to kill it and he says 'You have shoes on, you step on it!'

I was hoping at this point that Ryu knew I probably hate spiders just as much as he does so I said 'I am not going anywhere near that thing!'"

"So… you just let the spider sit there?" Sakura asks.

"Well we both thought it would just go away… and we stood there for a good 10 minutes waiting but the stupid thing wouldn't move.

'Maybe it's dead,' he says to me.

'Go find out!' I replied.

'I don't have shoes on!'

'And that is my fault? Throw something at it.'

So he picked up a stick and threw it at the spider, which moved slightly as it landed near him.

'It's still alive. I am pretty sure it isn't gonna leave. You have to kill it. Be a man, you can kill a spider. Besides, a strong warrior shouldn't fear anything,' I said in a low pitched, manly, yet mocking voice.

Obviously I hit a nerve, because at that point, he looked a little mad at me. Except he still didn't move towards the spider. I was pretty sure I was gonna have to kill the stupid thing, and then all of a sudden Ryu shouts 'Hadouken!' and shoots the spider."

Sakura starts laughing, and I giggle with her, joined by Ken. Ryu only has the faint hint of a smile.

"It didn't end there, Renee." Ryu says.

Ken and Sakura both stop laughing and look to me. "What?" they both say at the same time.

"We still had to find out of the spider was dead or not." I replied. "Obviously, it should be dead, since it just took on a Ki blast that would probably sting a human… But I didn't want to find out!"

"I found out for you."

"Yea you did… you jerk."

"What? What happened?" Ken asks.

I scrunch my face into an angry look. "He went over to the spider, and grabbed the stick he threw at it, and poked it. He told me it was dead so I walked back over to the fire, and then Ryu… You are such an ass you know? Here I go thinking you are this nice guy who doesn't do anything mean at all. So I trusted you…" I growl at him remembering the evening. "He threw the damn corpse at me."

Ryu chuckles to himself as Ken and Sakura guffaw on the ground. I cross my arms over my chest, and attempt to look as annoyed as possible, even though secretly I am laughing on the inside.

"I of course, jumped back again thinking the damn thing was still alive and brushed it off of me frantically till it was back on the ground. Clearly it was dead so I kicked the corpse into the fire. I was so pissed! But I didn't talk to him for the rest of the evening."

"And then the next day she fought her best with me when we sparred."

"Ha ha…" I say sarcastically. "Guess that means you have to throw more dead spiders at me then."

"Ah… that is funny. I guess you hung out with me a little too much, Ryu." Ken says.

"Yea, you always were the practical joker," Ryu responds.

"Yea… I guess you never will forgive me for doing that to you in the first place."

"It's the reason why I hate spiders."

*Now this I gotta hear* "What did you do to him, Ken?"

"Ah, Ryu, you are gonna kill me for this later! You see, Ryu had this awful habit of sleeping with his mouth open… So… I once put a spider in his mouth…"

"Oh! Oh oh oh! You didn't! That is really mean!" I yell, playfully smacking Ken in the shoulder. "No wonder you hate them!" I then punch Ryu on the arm.

"Hey, what was that for!"

"For picking up his bad habits! Throwing a spider at me… After he did something like that to you! Shame! Shame on you!"

We all settle down a few moments. Kazuta, amazingly stealthy while we were having our little conversation, at some point took the buckets inside and made us lunch and some nice hot tea. After we finished eating, I left to get changed into something else, as I was still in my sweat pants and sports bra. When I made my way back outside, I found that Ken had done the same thing, changing into his red karate gi.

"I am sure I don't have to tell you this, but, in a few days there is going to be a large tournament. Sakura and I have already decided to enter. How about you two?" Ken asks.

"I would also like to enter." I reply.

Ryu nods.

"Well then, that settles it. I am sure I don't need to remind you that at some point, we are going to have to fight each other. There is only one winner, so unless we are all knocked out early, the higher up the chain we go, the more likely it is we will have to fight each other."

"Mmm!" Sakura acknowledges enthusiastically.

"I understand," I say.

"No matter what, we can't hold back. Not at any moment. If you show any sign of weakness to anyone you fight, even if you want to because it is a friend, another opponent may see that, and use that to their advantage." Ryu says.

"I hope then, that the last four fighters standing are us." I say.

"I agree. We will all go down to Kabuki Town tomorrow after Ryu and I visit Master Gouken, and register for this thing." Ken says.

* * *

We all practiced together, doing kata and sparring. Before we knew it was very late, and Kazuta was calling us all in for dinner, praising us on our practice.

At bedtime we went to our separate rooms, Ryu and Ken in one and Sakura and I in another. Although it was nice to have another body in the room with me, her dislike for me clearly showed, as she didn't want to talk at all and went straight to bed. I lay there for hours, trying to fall asleep, but having the same difficulty as the previous night. I decide to get some fresh air, and step out outside, and sit on the front steps of the doorway. A few moments later, I hear the familiar footsteps of Ryu, heading my way.

He sits close to me on the steps, and wraps an arm around me, hugging at my waist.

"You still cant sleep?"

"No. Ken snores."

I giggle. "Stick a spider in his mouth. That will make him stop."

Ryu lightly chuckles. "If I see any spiders around, maybe I will do that."

We sit in silence for a little while. I am content with this, since he is near me, and I can feel the heat of his body as we sit together.

"Do you think you will have to face me?" Ryu asks.

"I plan on it."

"No matter what, we must fight. The fight is everything. There can be no regrets, no apologies for whatever happens."

"I understand."

I look up to him, looking into his eyes. It's that look again. I want to say it this time… I don't understand what makes it so hard…

"Ryu, I… I-"

"I know." He strokes my face with his other hand, brushing my cheek with his thumb and holding it at my jaw, gently pulling towards his lips.

Our lips meet in a tender kiss. After our lips part I look into his eyes again, soft and passionate and glazed. I know it now. I don't have to ask myself anymore.

I giggle softly and whisper to him, "You know, we are being watched." I can see two pairs of eyes, reflecting in the darkness from the corner of my eye.

"I know," he whispers back, and then softly kisses me again.

* * *

Note: OMG so hard to write with a cat on your lap! She didn't want to leave me alone either! Such an attention whore today. So this is probably the last bit of fluff before some real action. How much action you say? A whole crapload… in fact, I might have to tailor it down otherwise the tournament will take 20 chapters to write and I don't want it to seem like a Dragonball Z episode…


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

Note: Hi! I have been lazy. Not that I didn't want to write, but was really into Final Fantasy 8 (replaying it right now) and doin stuff around the house. I baked a rainbow cake! It was awesome. Also posted a new crappy fic I wrote from 12 years ago, and also got an idea for a new one that I have outlined, but I wont write that one for some time, I need to sit on the idea for a bit. Today's musical inspiration is Maroon 5. Maybe some Nine Inch Nails later.

* * *

Chapter 21

"I thought you were American."

"Just because I have a French last name doesn't mean I am not American."

"Don't most Americans hate the French?" asked Sakura.

I laugh at the question. "They did at one time but we have so many different cultures there now that most people don't think about it."

Ken and Sakura had caught a glimpse of my passport as we were registering for the tournament. While the event didn't require my full name, they still needed to see something. I once asked Ryu what his last name was, which he replied he didn't have one. I tried to see what Ryu's passport said, but my attempt at being evasive failed miserably. I hope I see it eventually. The registration also asked for a designation, just in case you didn't want anyone knowing your name. Maybe they wanted to give us more personality than just a number. Still, I wrote down my first name only.

"But you can at least say you have a French background." Ken says.

"And Japanese, and Irish. Probably German too. Nothing special."

"Sure there is. With a name like that, guys might think you are some smoking hot French lady, and that you can talk all sexy to them. Not that you aren't… hot… " He glances to Ryu who is now raising his eyebrow. "Well not _that_ hot…" I raise my eyebrow and cross my arms over my chest. "Or rather you are pretty nice looking… and… and…" He sighs and slumps down, defeated.

"Renee DuBois Chevalier," Sakura repeats, saying "doo-boyz" and "che-va-leer." "What does it mean?"

"Something like… a reborn knight of the woods. I never took French, so I really don't know. And if I wanted to go by French pronunciation, it wound be 'Doo-bwah Shev-ah-lee-eh.' It sounds too fancy that way. So I really don't tell a bunch of people what my whole name is. You know, because guys might think I am some sort of French exotic beauty, with a sexy accent." I glare at Ken. He holds his palms up and grins wide.

We all walk around the big city, window shopping, and discuss the upcoming event.

"Three whole days of fighting… I wonder how many people registered for the fight?" Sakura asked.

"Well, we will all find out tomorrow when they give us the fighting brackets. I know the cash winnings in the end are gonna be pretty good too! Not that I am worried about that. For now, we should probably do some extra training," Ken says.

"I agree. Renee, you really need to work on your Hadouken with me today," Ryu says.

"Yes, Sensei."

When we got back to the temple, we had a cup of tea, and then began our last minute training exercises. Ryu prepares me by helping me meditate for a while to clear my mind, before I try again to use Hadouken.

"What ever you can throw at me, as powerful as you can get it, just do it. I will block it."

I try to make my lightning storm between my palms at my side. My hands are still healing from the nail wounds, but all that is left now is the bright pink healing scars, so there is really no more pain from the cuts. Regardless, I try to focus my energy away from the cuts, as I did before when they were painful. While it did work, it wasn't as nearly as big as the first time I was successful.

I threw the tiny, pulsating, BB sized pellet of a ball towards Ryu, which fizzled on contact.

"That was…"

"Pathetic! I thought I would have at least graduated to a golf ball! Why is this so hard…"

"Ease up a little. Focus but don't over think it. Just let the energy come to you."

I stand up straight and close my eyes, holding my imaginary ball in front of me. I breathe in deeply, and exhale. I let my surroundings envelope me. The wind gently caresses my skin. The tails of my headband lightly flap in the breeze. I slowly move back into my stance, and move my hands to my side, my eyes still closed. I feel the light shocks of the electric Ki forming in between my palms. I flex my fingers, attempting to roll the energy in between them. This seems to work, as I can feel the heat of my energy forming. I open my eyes, and throw my creation towards Ryu, thrusting my palms out to release.

"Hadouken!"

To my surprise, the ball of energy is much bigger than before, brightly throbbing in white and yellow, surrounded in blue sparks. Ryu successfully blocks the attack, but still slides back a couple of inches.

I fist pump in the air in my excitement. "Progress!"

* * *

For the rest of the day, Ryu and I continued to practice my Hadouken. As time went on, I was able to generate the energy much faster, however not as fast and effective as Ryu's blasts are normally. Still, for now it can serve as a distraction as I pump myself up for more powerful attacks.

After dinner, we all go to bed to get a good nights sleep, in preparation for the next days events. Unfortunately, even as tired as I was, I was still unable to fall asleep right away, but, I did better than the previous two nights.

The next day, we get up at sunrise to have a good breakfast, courtesy of Kazuta, and head to the town. When we arrive at the giant building where the tournament is held, we see hundreds of spectators, waiting to get in to watch the fights. We make our way to the participant's entrance, seeing a few of the fighters standing out side. I found the one girl with the long red braid particularly amusing, talking on her cell phone. She was wearing a sort of custom made suit, cut off to show her belly, and rather low cut to show off her cleavage, and a black jacket. She also had on yellow sunglasses and some high heeled boots, which I thought was a bit odd. Who likes to fight in high heels?

"Looks like I am not the only one that likes to grow her hair out, hmm?"

"You know, having your hair that long can be a bad idea. Easy to grab on to," Sakura comments in a bit of a mocking voice.

"True, but, I can usually get out of it fast enough," I reply, a little snobbish.

We enter the building and see a small crowd of people next to a wall with a giant screen. From the distance we can't read what is on the screen, but we can clearly tell it is the fight bracket for the registered combatants.

We head over to the screen to see if we have to face each other early on. Luckily, none of us have to.

"Renee." Ryu says sternly.

I look towards him, and see he is pointing to a particular name on the listing.

"Vega."

"Uh…. Everything gonna be ok?" Ken asks, as he sees my body tense and my face turn red with rage.

"It will be fine. I will be fine."

"You may not even fight him."

Looking at the way the brackets were, the chances were good that we would face each other, but only if we both made it to the second to last round. If he and I made it that far, then our fight would determine who faces the final challenger. I also notice that if Sakura and I make it to the semi finals, we would also have to fight each other, and the outcome would have the chance to fight Vega. I am sure he will make it that far.

Ryu looks at me firmly, but I can see a hint of concern. I look back at him with a determined look. A look that says "No matter what, I can do this." Satisfied with my expression, he turns back to the screen, most likely calculating when he would have to face one of us, just as I am.

I count the names on the bottom of the schedule, and find that there are 32 people here that are registered to fight. Since there is only one ring, I can see why this is going to take 3 days.

"It starts in about an hour. I suggest we observe some of our opponents here, see if we can pick out any weaknesses that we can use to our advantage. I am sure that is what everyone else will be doing anyway. Good luck, guys! Knock um dead!" Ken says to the 3 of us with a thumbs up.

We all part here, walking around the complex. The one I was looking for, however, found me before I could find him…

"Oh, doveling, I see you survived our last encounter." A familiar Spanish accent says.

I turn around, fully knowing that I would see Vega. He isn't wearing his mask just yet, and seems to have no visible scars from our fight, even though I cut him a good one on his cheek.

"Hmm you must have a good plastic surgeon. I was hoping you would carry that memento of me forever." I say, gesturing to my own cheek, where his blemish would have been.

"Ah, doveling, it is so rare that someone takes the chance to scar me. And those that do, as few as they are, always pay for what they have done. I was sure you were dead then from what I did to you." He chuckles in a low breath. "Maybe you do not need my revenge, you have a nice set of scars. It must kill you every day, that it was I that in fact had left a memento to you. Does it kill him too, your lover?"

"As a matter of fact, it doesn't kill me. It has made me much stronger. And 'my lover' doesn't seem to be bothered by it either. Maybe you will see just how much stronger it has made me, you sick bastard."

"One can only hope, dove. This time I will kill you. There will be no stopping me, not here. You will die when you face me. I hope you are prepared for that." He grins wickedly. "Well if doesn't hurt your lover, what I did to you, so pleasurably, then it must have killed him to watch that passionate kiss we shared. I can tell you, before you die, your last kiss will be from me."

"You fucking bastard!" I step forward to slap him in the face, knowing it will enrage him but not caring, when a hand grabs my arm, stopping me from moving forward.

"Renee. Don't lose yourself right now. Save it," Ryu's familiar voice says behind me, as I still glower at Vega.

"Ah, there he is. Maybe you should leash your little fox here, till she can fight in the ring. I hope you know, after I kill her, I will kill you, for interfering. Until then…" Vega turns and walks away, pumping his fist in the air and screaming. Screams and hoots are heard from his fans that are gathering in the seating.

I look back at Ryu, who is still holding my arm, as if he is thinking that I might try to go after Vega.

"I'm fine. You can let me go now."

"Just remember. It is ok to fight angry, but don't lose your self in the rage. That is how you will lose to him."

* * *

Note: Sooo, about the tourney. Since there are a crap ton of fighters, I am obviously not going to detail each fight. I am going to focus on our main 4, and possibly Vega as well. Still, that being about 15 fights to detail, I am going to really focus on Renee's fights, and not so much the others till semi finals. You will see some Ryu, Ken and Sakura action, but not in great detail at first. If I did that, then this tourney would be 15 chapters, and I don't want to do that many on this. Still, there will be quite a few chapters on the tourney, as well as some intermissions in between since it is over the course of a few days. As long as I can get what is in my head down on paper properly, it should still be pretty good.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

Note: First, Let me apologize for the long delay in updating. I had it half way completed and then I got sick for about a week and didn't spend any time on the computer at all, except for Netflix. While I am still kinda sick right now, I wrote a little more, and then… DUN DUN DUN… I got a job! FINALLY. After 8 months of unwanted unemployment, I got a job, and I started it, which left me very little creative time to myself.

Second, since I have a job now, updates will probably have larger breaks between them. My writing time is probably only going to be on the weekends, or if I am super bored when I get home from work.

Also, I am not going to have any writing time this particular weekend because I am going out of town, and my wonderful, lovely friends of mine, are awesomely taking me to DISNEYLAND… Sorry guys, Disneyland takes priority over writing.

Now, About the story….fair warning, got a SF guy in here that I liked to play but honestly have no idea how he is personality wise so he is just here for a few of his moves.

AND! Don't fret, I do plan on finishing this story, its just that now, EMPLOYMENT takes priority. I honestly thought it was gonna be another 5 millions years before I found a job and was gonna have this finished by then. Yay for jobs though.

* * *

Chapter 22

It is just my luck that my name happens to be the first on the list of the fighting brackets. I could either be the first winner of the day, or the first shameful loser of the day. Losing the first fight of the day has to be embarrassing. By the looks of it, my opponent is C. Jack.

I step in to the circular ring in the center. I tighten my white headband just a little more and then get into my fighting stance. My opponent steps into the ring. He is wearing what seems to be a white leisure suit and a pink… fedora?

"Nice hat."

"Ah, you like it? It's my Monday hat. Ya know, Monday being the worst day of the week and all. What's a pretty Yankee gal like you doin at a place like this? Or are these fellas here trying to make this easy for me?"

I feel a little insulted by the remark. "Easy? I hope that you don't think this will be easy just because I am a girl. Have you looked around? There are plenty of other female fighters here."

"That is true, that is true. But just a fair warning for you, just cause you are a girl, doesn't mean I am gonna go easy on ya."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Jack."

We circled each other in the ring for a few moments, gauging the others ability. From my assessment, he appeared to be a regular boxer, but even so, I will not underestimate him if he shows any other abilities.

As we circle, I move my hands to my side and power up for my first attack. I want to see just how distracting my Ki blasts can be.

"Hadouken!" I yell as I push the static ball towards my opponent. To my surprise, before it makes contact, Jack kicks it away with his foot, redirecting it towards the ceiling. As it hits the top, a loud CRACK is heard, and small pieces of concrete fall. It wasn't powerful enough to do any more damage than that, however. This means, if he can see it coming, it's useless to fire off any more Hadoukens.

"Aw, you aren't one of those are you? I mean, I like to fight up close and personal, if ya know what I mean. So cut that projectile BS out and come over and hit me."

I give him a wicked smile, and oblige, rushing towards him as I gather more energy. He seems well prepared for my advance, and as I jab him multiple times, he flawlessly blocks each one, with what seems as no effort at all on his part. I can hear him chuckling behind his arms as he blocks every move.

"I told you this was gonna be easy," he says, and then throws a powerful right hook. Although I was able to block the punch, I was still taken off balance, but was able to catch myself before stumbling to the ground. Unfortunately, that split second that I was open was all he needed. He punches and jabs, in a flurry, landing multiple blows to my chest and face. Have I mentioned that getting punched in the boob sucks? Every time I move my hand or arm to block, he smacks it out of the way, and then uses his other fist to land another blow. With each hard hit I take, I move a step back to get some distance, but he is right on me. Whichever way I try to dodge, the corresponding fist is there to meet me. This is not looking good.

Finally, he gears up for a finishing blow, taking his fist far back, so he can hit me with as much power as possible. This is my only chance to get him away from me, or counter. I decide to do a little of both.

I duck and bring my knee in as close to my torso as possible, so my kick can be as forceful as possible. Not that Joudan Sokutou Geri isn't already powerful enough, enforced with Ki, but this guy might deserve a few broken ribs now. Everything seems to happen in slow mo, my leg extending for the kick, and his arm coming down for the punch.

"EEEEEEYAAAA!" I scream as my kick makes contact with his gut. He flies, horizontally at first, out of the ring, and almost into the crowd. His pink hat falls near the edge of the ring.

I get back into my stance. I have ten seconds for him to get back into the ring. I feel the sweat on my forehead, collecting on my headband. I can feel a cut on my eyebrow oozing down the side of my eye and rolling down my cheek. My cheeks feel like they are on fire, and I can already feel the swelling. Just a few more seconds.

A fingerless gloved hand slaps on the edge of ring, then another, and soon the body that is attached to the limbs pulls him up. He has blood streaming from his mouth to his chin, dripping to the floor. He casually walks to his hat, and bends over, picking it up, and placing it back on his head. He gets back into his fighting stance.

"I knew ya had it in you. When this is over, you have to buy me lunch. Ya know, to replace the one I just lost over there." He smiles, showing his bloody teeth.

I smile and laugh at his comment. "Only if you win."

"Ah, there is a deal then."

This time, he moves in towards me, taking long strides and moving in sideways. I keep my arms tight just in case I need to block. When he gets in good striking distance, he punches underhand and to the side which forces me to act fast and block with my arm, leaving my face unguarded for a moment. By the time I noticed my error, he was already sending his fist flying towards my face, in a right cross. It was then slow motion, as I see his fist heading to my right, I turn my head just enough for the blow to glance off of my cheek, and the power behind it extending beyond my right.

Again, I had a split second to make a move. Even in that short period if time, I could see the moves I could employ, as he is still in the momentum of his strike. Should I try to wrap my leg around his now extended leg in front of me, taking it from under him and force him to the ground? Or I could grab his arm and toss him, like Ryu has done to me hundreds of times before.

I quickly decide that the grab will be more effective. I grab his wrist as it is at the end of his punch, and turn while grabbing his triceps of the same arm as he is forced behind me, and throw him over head.

*Lets see you kick this one away*

"Hadouken!" I shout, as my ball of shock is hurled towards him as he is still trying flip and recover in a landing from the throw. The blast hits him on his unblocked chest, forcing him even further back from his landing.

I run to him as fast as I can, seeing more opportunity to strike as he unsteadily lands on his feet, still trying to recover from the blast.

Apparently I was not fast enough.

I got too cocky. How many times was I warned of this? I thought with a few good moves already in, I could continue to wail on him, and beat him into submission, and finally win this match. I let my guard down because my mind had already settled on an easy victory. Damn.

I was met with a well placed uppercut, forcing my head backwards, and the momentum of my body to follow. I could see light in my eyes as the blow made contact, everything going blank for a moment. As soon as I could see again, I was met with a rounded powerhouse fist punch to my jaw and cheek. In that moment that whole side of my head went numb, and I lost vision on that side, like before, the light in my eye, like a flash of lightning from the sky if your eyes were closed. Had he let me, I would have fallen to the side, and surely landed on the ground. Instead, he uses his other fist to uppercut me again, this time with more force, his entire arm extended skyward, with my chin attached to it all the way until I flew upwards away from him.

I am not sure if I am even conscious at this point. I feel the pain of even more pain as I continue to fly upwards. I start to see him in my blurry vision, but only just in time for him to finish his flurry with a left handed punch, underhand and a little to the side, cracking my jaw to the left, and finally letting my body fall to the ground.

I lay there for a moment, unsure of how much time goes by, but hoping that I still have enough to get up. My head is pounding with the worst headache I have ever had. My face feels like it is 1000 degrees, burning from all of the swelling. My mouth is filled with blood, so much that it dribbles down my face. So far it doesn't seem like I have lost any teeth, but my jaw is surely broken, or fractured. My headband feels like it is getting tighter around my head, probably from all manners of bumps around my head from the outburst of blows.

It has been enough time. I haven't heard any announcement of my loss. I try to get up, hoping that Jack is somewhat of an honorable fighter, and won't kick my while I am down. If he isn't, I am certain that it would be over for me.

"Well, well, I am impressed gal. I have taken out men twice as big as you, and with only half the force."

I manage to slowly get to my feet. Everything is still in a haze. Thank god he is wearing a white suit and a bright pink hat, otherwise I wouldn't even able to see him. I stand there, slouched, blood and sweat everywhere dripping onto my chest, and onto the floor.

"Come on, Yank, I think you have had enough. Don't make me knock even more sense into you."

I try to smile and retort but any facial movement hurts. Even opening my mouth to speak shoots pain through my jaw. Instead I just take a deep breath through my nose and open my mouth just enough to exhale. I stand up straight but don't quite yet get into my fighting stance, but still trying my best to keep an eye on his posture, hoping if he does decide to strike me again, that I will be ready for it. I slowly, and only in once, circle my hands around, just as before months ago, when I was first learning a better way to gather Ki. For now, I hope its enough. I get into my own stance, ready to face Jack again.

"All right, girl. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Instead of getting back into a solid pose, Jack seems a little more relaxed than before. It seems now he is the one that is getting too cocky. He quickly dashes forward, ready with a punch to my chest. It seemed like he wanted me to block to gauge my defenses in my current state. As he predicted, or at least that is my thought, I block, but notice the force isn't what it was before. He is either deliberately being an asshole and trying to make it a slow victory, or he actually feels sorry for my current state. Either way, he continues to throw punches, each successfully blocked, while I, hopefully unknowing to him gather more energy.

I try to play off sluggishness as he continues with his stupid little game of trying to wear me out to my demise, while in actuality, I am gaining more focus as my Ki builds. My vision begins to clear, and I start to feel regenerated, like a second wind. Even so, I let him continue, because I will only have enough energy to do one, maybe two more big attacks before I really am spent.

I pretend to stumble as he punches me in the chest again, landing a blow to my scarred shoulder. I slouch down again, almost seeming to fall over, but showing that I am barely keeping myself up. I breathe heavy, each exhale starting to sound liquidy. I can only hope he falls into my trap.

"All right, I have had enough of this. I hope you wake up soon so you can buy me lunch," he says, and then comes at me for a final hit to my face, bringing his arm and fist as far back as he can to make sure it is the knock out punch.

From the massive amount of Ki I have gathered, a little at a time, I move a portion of it to my legs, to make sure this kick is just right. The rest I keep at my core, ready to move at my command when needed. As Jack jumps up to punch me down, I vertically kick him skyward, my heel making contact with his chin. He sores skyward. I have one more move in me.

I cant even say the words behind the attack, but they are there in my mind. I have to do this now, and I have to win. As Jack comes down, in a sloppy attempt to correct himself for a good landing, I feel the energy at my center ready to burst. I jump to meet him, and spin like I never have before, my leg extended, making a whirlwind vortex in the middle of the ring. I am covered in electricity. Everything seems to blur. I can't even see the crowd, as it seems like I am surrounded in a hurricane of sparks. Jack and I are caught in the middle of this storm, except I am in control. I make contact with each rotation, with god knows where on Jack, and when it seems like he is going to be kicked out of the tornado, he gets sucked right back into my Hurricane kick. It seemed to last forever.

Finally, my energy spent, the vortex calms, and Jack is thrown to the ground. I land on my feet but can't stay on them long and drop to my knees. I look to my opponent, who is lying in the ring, but unmoving.

After ten seconds, the bell is heard, and a circle appears next to my name on the scoreboard. An X on Jacks.

My first fight is over… and yet, it is only the beginning.

* * *

Note: FYI, this did not get beta read, so I am sorry in advance for any typos and errors. I wanted to get it posted ASAP since it has been so long. I will fix errors like… later. OMG This was SO HARD TO WRITE! I really spent a lot of time and research on this, so I really hope it was good. Thanks for Reviewing!


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

Hi! I know it's been a bit. Let's just say, life had some drama for a bit. All is ok now.

I have a song for you to listen to (or read) before I get on with the chapter. I feel like it explains the way the OC feels sometimes. The song is "Shot in the Dark" by Within Temptation.

_I've been left out alone like a damn criminal_  
_I've been praying for help cause I can't take it all_  
_I'm not done,_  
_It's not over._

_Now I'm fighting this war since the day of the fall_  
_And I'm desperately holding on to it all_  
_But I'm lost_  
_I'm so damn lost_

_Oh I wish it was over,_  
_And I wish you were here_  
_Still I'm hoping that somehow_

_Cause your soul is on fire_  
_A shot in the dark_  
_What did they aim for when they missed your heart?_  
_I breathe underwater_  
_It's all in my hands_  
_What can I do_  
_Don't let it fall apart_  
_A shot in the dark_

_In the blink of an eye_  
_I can see through your eyes_  
_As I'm lying awake I'm still hearing the cries_  
_And it hurts_  
_Hurts me so bad_

_And I'm wondering why I still fight in this life_  
_Cause I've lost all my faith in this damn bitter strife_  
_And it's sad_  
_It's so damn sad_

_Oh I wish it was over,_  
_And I wish you were here_  
_Still I'm hoping that somehow_

_Cause your soul is on fire_  
_A shot in the dark_  
_What did they aim for when they missed your heart?_  
_I breathe underwater_  
_It's all in my hands_  
_What can I do_  
_Don't let it fall apart_

_A shot in the dark_

_A shot in the dark_

_I feel you fading away_

* * *

Chapter 23

I saw the X next to his name.

It was all the confirmation my aching body needed. I slumped down even further, my arms resting on my thighs as I still sit there on my knees. My mind goes in and out of consciousness. I can't keep my eyes focused so I just close them.

I feel a pair of hands to my left arm, helping me up, and then wrapping it around his neck. His hand holds mine to secure my arm behind him, otherwise it might just flop down. His other arm wraps around my waist and holds me tight to his side. I try to keep my head up, but it just wants to stay down. I try to focus on the ground in front of me, but all I see is blur. All I can feel is the blood and sweat stinging my eyes. I can barely use him as a crutch. He carries me that way, in hopes that it tells the crowd that I am not beaten so bad I can't even walk. I take steps with him, but my feet hardly touch the ground. Thank god he is there, otherwise I might have crawled out of the ring when I was able.

He finally sets me down on a bench, and leans me up against the wall behind it. I think he said something to me. I don't know. It is so hard to focus. My head is throbbing and my face feels like it is on fire. I can't seem to close my mouth all the way, and when I try to clench my teeth, all I can feel is intense pain in my jaw. Everything hurts.

As I start to fall asleep, I feel a cool wet cloth gently wipe my face. It hurts and feels good all at the same time. After it glides over my eyebrows and eyelids, I try to open my eyes. I see a blur of flesh color, and white kneeling in front of me. He finishes getting what he can of the blood and grime from my face and neck, and then begins putting paper stitches on. Eleven, twelve, thirteen… How many is he going to put on me? Is it really that bad?

My vision clears up a bit more. His face looks a little concerned. I attempt to speak, with the intention of asking "what?" but my jaw reintroduces me to the pain, and its apparent dislike of me moving my mouth.

"Your jaw is dislocated," Ryu says to me.

Well great.

I sit up a little, moving my hands to the bench to prop myself up. Thankfully my movement is coming back to me, although it is stiff. I take a few deep breathes through my nose, preparing for more pain. I know that I can't fix this on my own. If it was a dislocated shoulder, sure, but when you have to fix your jaw with your own two hands…

I grab his hands and place them on each side of my jaw and then place my hands over his. I give him a hard stare. I am ready, I can do this.

"Ok, I am going to count to three, and then we will do this."

I inhale, and then exhale in a huff. "One… Two… Three!"

We jerk and push together. The POP and CRACK seems like it was so loud it might have been heard throughout the warehouse. Then again my headache is so bad right now I think it is amplifying every sound in the place.

But… MOTHER HELL that hurt! I am not sure what hurt worse, getting punched so hard that it makes your jaw dislocate, or putting it back to where it should be!

I let go of his hands, which are still on each side of my face and place them on my lap. He caresses my cheek one last time with his thumb and then lets go.

"Are you going to be ok if I leave you here? I don't think you should get up for a little while."

Of course, selfishly, I don't want him to leave, but I know that he wants to watch how our friends are doing, as well as needing to participate himself.

"Man in white. I will take care of her, if you like," a familiar voice says a few feet away.

We both look in the direction of the voice. A familiar hairy Italian stands there with an ice pack in his hand and a giant cheesy grin. Ryu stands up and then bows to Antonio.

"Thank you. It would be appreciated," Ryu replies.

"It is my pleasure."

I watch Ryu walk into the crowd and towards the ring. Since I am sitting on a bench, I can't see any of the action. Antonio sits beside me and hands me the ice pack, which I promptly put on my aching face.

"Cara, it pains me to see you get more scars, especially on your beautiful face… May I try something for you?"

I look at him questionably, but nod once. He pulls a round container out of his pocket and removes the lid. A foul smelling green and brown clumpy paste is inside. He dips his fingers in it, and then smears it all over my face, like a night cleansing mask. The smell burns my nostrils, but numbs my skin.

"This will help with the swelling, as well as the lacerations. They are minor enough. But you should lay down so it sinks into your pores. I will make sure you are safe, it is ok."

I attempt a half smile at Antonio, but my face is becoming so numb I don't think facial movements even work. I take his advice and lie down on the bench. I keep me legs bent so there is enough room, but Antonio takes my feet and puts them on his lap. I close my eyes and listen to the fight that is happening at the moment. I seem to slip away into unconsciousness, and into dreamland.

* * *

"_I thought you had what it takes to learn."_

"_I do."_

"_You are hardly improving in your technique. I would think that what you knew before would incorporate well with the new form. They are almost even the same style, and yet, you fail. You almost lost the fight. A few years ago, it would have been a simple win. Was that year you got yourself into trouble that damaging to you? Did you forget so much of what I taught you, what other Sensei taught you? Wait, I think I understand what it is. It is your current Sensei. Because you are being a stupid whore, you are distracting him. You forgot everything when you were a whore before, and here you are, being one again. Do you see the difference? Before you slept with him, you were progressing. Is it such a hard thing, keeping your legs closed?"_

_I cry. He has never talked to me like this before. It isn't like him._

"_That isn't true! I have learned so much! He thinks everything is going well… He has said-"_

"_Forget what he says! He is a man! He is being serviced by a woman, and will say anything so he can get what he wants from you. Do you really think he cares, now that he is getting more than what he expected from you?"_

_Why is he making me feel like this? The tears continue to stream down my face. I look to him, my eyebrows bunched, my expression sorrowful. "W-what is it that you want me to do?"_

"_Train harder. Every moment you are awake, think of nothing else but the fight ahead. I can't tell you to stop sleeping with him now, because if he loses that from you, he may not even want to continue. You have to become a master of the art, and soon. If you take too much time, all will be lost. The day of your true test is approaching. If you are not ready at that time, then what you have seen will be true."_

_He turns around and walks away, into the dark abyss of the dream. "Wait! Tell me! Whose blood is it on my hands?"_

_He turns his head to the side, to be heard. "You already know the answer to that."_

* * *

A wet, cool cloth again, gently wiping my face. Did I fall asleep? What was I just dreaming? It is already fading away into a distant memory.

"Wow! What the hell is that stuff! She looks so… normal," Ken's familiar voice says.

My eyes flutter open. Antonio's hairy face comes into focus, as he cleans the smelly paste from my face.

"It is herbal medicine. I carry it with me always. It is good for fast recovery, but you do not want to use it too often. There you go, cara, all cleaned up."

Already, I can tell things are better. There is no more pain. I feel my cheeks and my eyebrows. The swelling is completely gone. All I can feel is the paper stitches all over my face.

I sit up and look to my friends, who all have one or two similar paper stitches in various places on their faces. Sakura has a few on her eyebrow, and a dried stream of blood down her cheek from the wound. Ken has a couple on the bridge of his nose, but they already appear to be healed. Ryu has a few on his chin.

"Did I miss the whole thing? How did all of you do?"

"Aw, we did alright. All of us made it to the next round!" Ken says, cheerfully.

"We should get getting back to the temple. There are things we need to discuss. Thank you, Antonio, for looking after Renee," Ryu says.

"Yes, thank you," I say as well.

"It was my pleasure, cara. Take care, all of you. I will be around to watch all of you fight. If you need me for anything, just let me know. I look forward to fighting you again as well, cara," Antonio says with a smile.

Ken and I wave as Antonio heads off. I stand up, rather stiffly from my apparent 4 hour nap.

"You ok to walk?" Ken asks.

I stretch, and walk around to loosen my muscles. "Yea, I should be fine."

* * *

Ken and Sakura walk ahead, discussing their encounters, and how they could improve their technique. Ryu and I stay silent for most of the walk, although, when I turn to look at him every so often, he looks like he wants to say something. Finally, when we were only a mile away from the steps to the temple, he breaks the silence.

"Do you know what you did, in the end, when you finally beat him?"

I look to him and purse my lips together. "Not… exactly."

He stares at me and raises an eyebrow. "Do you remember how you did it?"

"I… uh… … … Not exactly."

He looks down and sighs, almost disappointedly. "It was one of the final forms of the Hurricane Kick," he says sternly as he looks towards me again.

"Shinku?"

"Yes. I was surprised to see you do it. It isn't something I have really shown you."

I hazily remember the dream I had when I slept on the bench. Did he accuse me of not learning fast enough? How is it that I am able to use a move like that? I understand the foundation of the move was the Hurricane Kick…

"We should practice, when we get to the temple. It is still daylight, we should have some time," I suggest.

"Are you sure? I mean, whatever it was that Antonio gave you for your bruising worked wonderfully but… Maybe you need to relax a little before you-"

"I have to fight again, tomorrow." I snap. "If my opponent is half as good as Jack, I may not win. If I plan on making it through this, I have to train, now, later, every moment."

He shifts his face ahead again, with no expression or emotion. "If that is what you wish."

I will show you, father. I will make you proud.

* * *

Note: Next chapter, another day, another round of fighting. I hope it is just as exciting as the fight with Cracker Jack. I really want to get to a certain chapter in this story, and it's not too far off but I have to get through a few more bouts. I promise, we will feel more of Renee soon, and we will know more of her story. Right now I am just trying to get to the major idea, which is just a few chapters off. I know this chapter kind of sucks, and has a lot of... confusion, but, that is on purpose, I assure you. More excitement coming soon! I hope you like the song!


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

A new day, a new fight. Also, another song. I don't want to do this every time, but I have been listening a lot to Within Temptation's new album and some of the songs just connect so well with what is going on. So here is the song "Faster" I highly recommend listening to WT, as they are super awesome. They are my 2nd favorite bad, my first being Nine Inch Nails. :D

_I can't see, cause it's burning deep inside._

_Like gasoline, a fire running wild._

_No more fear, cause I'm getting closer now._

_So unreal, but I like it anyhow._

_I go faster and faster and faster_

_and faster and faster and faster and faster._

_I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_And I can't hide from the feeling cause it's right._

_And I go faster and faster and faster and faster for love._

_And I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_I can feel that you've mesmerized my heart._

_I feel so free._

_I'm alive, I'm breaking out._

_I won't give in, cause I'm proud of all my scars._

_And I can see I've been wasting too much time._

_I go faster and faster and faster_

_and faster and faster and faster and faster._

_I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_And I can't hide from the feeling cause it's right._

_And I go faster and faster and faster and faster for love._

_And I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_And I can't hide from the feeling cause it's right._

_And I go faster and faster and faster and faster for love._

_And I can't live in a fairytale of lies._

_A fairytale of lies._

* * *

Chapter 24

"Again."

"No."

I punch the ground angrily, causing the skin on my knuckles to break even more. He offers his hand to me, to help me up, which I refuse. I push myself up forcefully, almost bumping into him as I stand. I clench my fists and hold my arms stiff to my side while being nose to nose with him. "Again!"

"No," he calmly says again.

"Why not!"

He turns around and walks way, ignoring my question. All it does is piss me off even more. I grab a pebble from the ground and throw it at him, like a fastball pitcher. At the last moment, he turns around and amazingly catches the pebble between two fingers. Despite my behavior, he still looks calm and collected.

"Sit down and relax. Think of what you are doing. When you understand, come see me. I will be waiting," he says, and then turns to walk away again, tossing the pebble into the air and catching it again.

_Relax. Right. It is easy for you to relax, you can just flick someone to knock their ass to the ground. There, you win. I have to get beaten to a bloody pulp before I get some sort of second wind, and then pull a miraculous victory. Or you have to interfere and prevent some asshole from killing me. And that same asshole is going to have the chance to kill me again! Relax!_

_What does he expect me to do? I have to train harder. I have to fight tomorrow. I have to get through it. And I will have to fight Vega again, I know it. I can see it happening that way. Ryu cant interfere again, I have to beat him on my own this time. There is no saving my ass. It's either win or die for me! _

_Was he right? Was that dream right? Have I lost my touch? I should have been able to beat Jack easily. Five years ago that fight would have been 20 seconds. What the hell did I get myself into? What the hell is wrong with me? My mission was to find the man that can teach me the technique, not sleep with him. And even though that hasn't been happening since we have been at the temple, I am still distracted. _

_He was right. My performance has been lacking. While I have learned new abilities, I haven't perfected what I know. And I haven't been focused on improving on my roots. No matter the grade I am or was before, there is still improvement. He is right. I have lost it since he died. God damn it._

_And now what? I have to know more, because….I have to prepare… for something… What is the true test? _

_I don't understand. What is this mission? I know I have asked myself a million times, why is it important to learn? I have thought of this over and over again. What is the point? Why is an almost dead art so important to understand? It makes me so… Angry!_

_And… that is it too… I get angry when I don't understand. When he died, I got angry, and I lost my focus. I am angry now because I don't understand why this is important. I don't understand why I need to put myself in a situation where I may lose my life. Then again, I _want_ to fight Vega again, because he needs to pay, but I am still scared and unfocused. If I lose my focus then how can I expect to win in a fight? And how can I expect Ryu to teach me without that?_

_Was it just a dream? Is my mind just trying to set me back on track again? I have a feeling my subconscious is being harsh to make me realize what it is that I am losing… Again. I was so disappointed in myself by my performance that I conjured up this… image of a disappointed father. _

_I am letting the fear and confusion rule my movements. I have to regain my focus. I have to relax._

By the time I finished my argument with myself, I notice I went from standing to sitting down in the middle of the grounds, meditating. From the position of the sun, almost hitting the horizon, I know it's been a few hours since Ryu left me here to think about my actions.

"I think I understand now," I say aloud, mostly to myself since no one else seems to be around.

* * *

He stands there with a stern look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn't ask any verbal questions, but the look in his eyes are saying "Well?"

"I am scared," I finally say. Luckily Ken and Sakura are practicing on the other side of the temple so they can't hear our conversation. That is all I need, either Ken cracking jokes or Sakura getting happy that I am actually losing my cool on something.

His expression doesn't change but he raises an eyebrow, as if to ask "Of what?"

"When is the last time you lost your way?"

He uncrosses his arms and then sits on the ground, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knees. I do the same, sitting across from him.

"It has been a long time since then. Ken and even Sakura were there as well to see me go through it. You may not know much of Satsui no Hadou, but what you do know is that I was lost inside of it. I lost control then. I have told you some of this before, where I would find myself somewhere, and everything around me dead. It was getting harder and harder to keep my balance. At its worst, I told Ken to kill me so I wouldn't end someone's life. In a sense, I never gained control, because the technique was sealed. Either way, I was lost. I was not in control. When you lose control, you lose the fight. Especially the fight within. In that respect, sometimes the most important battle is the battle within."

"Do you think if you never had it sealed, you would have lost?"

"I am not sure, even today. I can only hope that at some point I would have been strong enough, mentally, to keep it under control. But still, you do not have to fear Satsui no Hadou. So what is it that you are scared of?"

I bite my bottom lip before I respond. He doesn't completely know of everything, and even now, if I tried to explain it, how would he understand if I don't even understand it myself… "I am afraid I will fail my mission. Part of that fear is not understanding even what the mission is. I just know… I need to do it, and I have to succeed." _It feels like my life… and your life… depend on it. _"I will have to fight Vega again."

"I know."

"I have to beat him so I can move forward. He is an obstacle in completing my task. I have to be prepared before I fight him. I have to train harder, and now, in order to do that."

"You have to have your mind in order to do that. If you face him as you were a few hours ago, you will lose. Not understanding your goal is ok. Losing yourself in that is what will make you lose."

_Do you even understand your goal? Is that what you are trying to tell me?_

"Do you want to try again before supper?" I ask.

"Do you think you are ready to try again?"

* * *

We arrive at the warehouse an hour before the next round is supposed to start. We take a look at the next bracket to see who we are fighting today. Again, I am first, with my opponent being C. Viper. After these rounds, we fight again, continuing up the chain. I notice that Sakura is the next bout after me. This also means that if she wins, it will be she and I facing each other before the day ends if I win my bout with Viper. Just to complicate matters even more, whoever wins that fight will have to face Vega, as I am almost positive he will make it that far. This means that I have to win. I couldn't bear watching Sakura fight him.

I stretch and do some practice kata before I have to get ready to fight. At the same time I think about last night before we went to bed. He didn't even ask me to elaborate on "my mission." Although I am grateful he didn't ask, as I would have no idea exactly how to explain that, I was a little disappointed that he didn't even seem remotely curious on the basis of it. Maybe someday, he will ask.

We practiced for a couple of hours before we went to bed. With my mind a little more tranquil, my center was much better, and by the end of the night, my Ki blasts seemed to get bigger, faster, and stronger. I still don't quite understand how I did Shinku Tatsumaki Sempuu Kyaku, but hopefully I will soon. It was mostly just me and Ryu, but Ken and Sakura joined us near the end for some final moves and a few minutes of meditation.

I do some last minute stretches before I get into the ring.

"Renee," Ryu says from behind me. I turn around, and look him straight in the eye.

We have a silent conversation for a moment. To me, he expression says "You will make it through this." To which my expression says "I hope so." He then shifts his expression slightly, and when I say slightly I mean a normal person wouldn't see that his face has changed in the tiniest bit at all, to the almost loving stare, as if to say something… nice and lovey dovey. And I reply with a minor blush.

The silent conversation lasts a whole 7 seconds, but seems like more.

"Just remember what we talked about yesterday."

"Yes, Sensei."

* * *

It seems that C. Viper is the red head with the braid and yellow glasses that was talking on her cell phone. I now regret not being able to stay conscious yesterday so I could have seen what she could do. I am sure she watched me and has a good idea of what I can do. Hopefully I can change it up a bit.

I get in to my usual stance. I notice her stance is casual and a little relaxed. Her black gloves spark with electric current at her knuckles as she loosens and tights her grip.

"Are you ready there, Red?" I ask.

"I'd prefer Crimson."

Ah. That makes sense. C. Viper. Crimson Viper. Whatever. "Ok then, Crimson… Are you ready?"

She waves her hand lazily, like this fight is going to be cake for her. "I am just here to test your abilities. Actually, it's your friend in white that I really want to get to."

Why does that piss me off? Is it because I am a typical girl who is slightly jealous?

As fast and surprising as I can, I put my hands to the side and quickly throw a Ki blast at her. I didn't have too much time to gather a lot of energy, so it was a relatively small blast. She jumps over it easily.

"Hmm, I must have hit a nerve," she says as she lands.

She runs towards me and jumps, spinning into doing splits with her legs in the air. As she spins, her feet are enveloped in fire. I quickly jump backwards to avoid the fire.

The spinning fire kick only seems to last one rotation as she faces forward and then lands. I quickly throw another Ki blast towards her, which she successfully blocks with her arms.

I take a bracing step backwards, and charge up as long as I can before I throw another Ki blast. She starts running towards me. Now is as good as ever.

"Hadouken!" I yell as my better-than-normal charged blast heads her direction. It is almost blindingly bright as it pulsates and spins with yellow and blue sparks.

At the last moment she jumps over the blast, high into the air. It seemed impossible, for her to be able to jump that high, as well as jump over the blast as quickly as she did. She drops down from the jump and gets into a position to punch down, except… I am too far away from her… How does she expect to hit me from there?

She lands on one foot and one knee, pounding the ground with her fist. I fly backwards and land on my back.

In my mind for that split second on the ground, I go into Instant-Replay. When her fist hit the ground, it was like a mini electric earthquake. It was too fast at the time for me to realize that the seismic waves were heading my way, not only shaking the ground but zapping everything in its path… aka me. If she tries this again, I will either have to attempt to jump over it or block it low.

I jump up and see her getting ready to jump again. Since I am not sure what she is doing, I decide I need some air time.

"Tatsumaki Sempuu Kyaku!" I yell as I do the Hurricane kick, spinning in her direction. At the same time she does her fire kick again. On my second rotation of my own kick and her kick, our feet make contact with each other at the same time. My electric current smashes against her flames. It seems to screw it up for the both of us, as we both get sent soaring back.

We both land on our feet, myself a little more graceful. As she stands, she brings her fist back, appearing to charge a punch. I rush towards her in hopes to catch her before she is able to do… whatever it is she is trying to do. I get my fist ready, and bring it back for a right hook, as I charge my hand in energy. Right as I am ready to punch her in the face, her electro charged fist swiftly punches me in the chest. Not only am I flying backwards, but it feels like I just got struck by lightning. My heart races, but also skips a few beats as it tries to recover from the shock. If you are dying and need a charge to get your heart going, and this chick is around, just have her punch you in the chest, it might work.

I notice that I am at the edge of the ring. I sluggishly get up, holding my chest, waiting for the pain to subside a little. She doesn't look as if she is going to attack me just yet.

"Having fun yet?"

"Loads," I reply.

"Are you ready to show me what you can really do?"

My chest feels a little congested. I cough up the grossness lurking in there and spit. Hmm, a little bit of blood. Damn her.

I kneel on the ground on one knee for a moment, hoping to give the impression of exhaustion when really I am gearing up for my next attack. She seems to be waiting patiently.

The grip my shoes have with the ring are good. There should be little resistance.

I jump towards her, attempting to gain as much distance as fast as possible with my fist in front of me, ready to make contact. As I make it to her, she blocks my punch, rather well actually. More stationary now, I try to jab again, then kick her to her side, which are both blocked. In the same kick I raise my foot high, and heel kick down, which at the same time she kneels and blocks each hit as my foot makes its way down back to the ground.

Son of a bitch, she is the master of blocking.

I can see as she is kneeling, she goes through the motions of doing a sweep.

It turns out I am pretty good at blocking myself, as I kneel down as well to block the sweep with a knee to the ground. Her attempt thwarted, she raises a little and kicks me to my blocking thigh, just to spite me it seems.

I raise to her level, as she still attempts to punch me in the chest. Luckily the punches are not charged so they are blocked easily. I am just waiting for an opportunity to strike, she is going to have to take a split second break some time…

I was so busy blocking the punches, I didn't have time to switch my stance to evade the two rather hard kicks to my shin. It effectively forces my feet from under me and I fall to the ground. Before I have time to recover, she jumps into her airborne splits and does her fire kick on the way down, which burns me as I lie there. I roll a few feet a way, stinging from the fire.

"You fight dirty," I say as I get up.

She smiles. "I do what I have to, to win."

Right. What a bitch.

Time to try something I haven't done before. Again, I brace my foot behind me for balance, and move my hands to my side, to charge up a Ki blast. I can feel my aura around me, the current of my electricity traveling down my body. I am not sure if it is visible to anyone, as I cant see it even myself, but I can feel it. My pulsating static ball gets bigger and brighter the more I charge. I know I should let go soon but I keep going. I hope I don't find out the hard way what happens if you gather too much energy.

She puts her hand to her ear and her temple as she stares at me. "Are you getting this? She isn't bad."

My hands are on fire, and I cant seem to take it anymore. I push the ball of energy towards her with all my might. I know she was prepared for it, but it should still do _something _to her, even if she blocks.

She crosses her arms in front of her and braces for the hit. Normally, when my Ki blasts hit something, it dissipates after contact. This time, it kept pushing and pushing her back, till she was almost at the edge of the ring. It finally evaporated then. Her dress shirt sleeves were smoking, looking singed. A hole seemed to be burned into her knee, with the skin behind it looking rather red, like a sunburn.

"Holy shit."

Holy shit is right. Let's add another thing to the list of "How the hell did I do that?"

"Alright. Playtimes over."

She gears up to punch. I have a feeling it's the ground pound again so I crouch to brace for it. Her fist is covered in sparks and as I presumed, she punches the ground, sending the shockwave towards me. It is harder to block than I thought. Although it didn't send me backwards, it did leave me dazed and blurry eyed.

I can see her walking towards me, but I can't seem to move fast enough to get out of the way.

Damn it.

"This is it, darling," she says as she grabs my shirt at the chest and pulls me up. As she is letting to, she punches me with her electric charged fist in a hook, then with the other charged and ready, uppercuts me with no resistance. As I fly upwards, she is on fire, kicking me with her flames, around and around and around. I must have been hit a few dozen times.

I land hard, on my side. I hear the countdown start. I roll to my stomach and slide my knees under me. She fights dirty, so any second now she is going to kick my while I am down. I am waiting for it. I get my arms under me so I can push myself up. Still nothing from her. I get a leg out from under me and kneel, and then finally stand. I turn around, expecting to see her ready for the next move.

Except she isn't ready. She is bracing herself, hands on her knees, slumped over as she tries to recover from her big attack.

I take a few steps forward and hold up my fist. A blue and yellow static aura mist around it.

She looks up to me, finally. "Son of a… Jesus, woman, don't you know how to stay down?"

"Looks like you expected that last move to be it? I guess I am a little more durable that you expected."

"After what I saw yesterday?" she says, a little exhausted, breathing heavily, "yea, that should have been it."

"Well, Red, you are just gonna have to try again."

She straightens and curls her lip in a growl. She charges her static fist and rears back. Before she has the chance, I punch her in the chest, and immediately follow with a right hook with my already Ki enforced fist. And still, within that same moment, after my fist makes contact with her face, I use that energy by quickly going to the familiar pose of my hands at my sides and push what I have right into her open stomach as I yell the magic words. "Hadouken!"

She lands on her back. Rolls her head around on the ground. The countdown begins. Twitches her fists. But she doesn't get up.

I let the leftover energy leave my body as the countdown finishes. I feel my braid, and my headband tails flutter to the side, like a small breeze just came by.

The circle next to my name appears.

* * *

Note. SUPER LONG CHAPTER OMG! I coulda made this 2 chapters but… I didn't want to. I tried really hard at this chapter though. And I have to say, I think I like how it turned out. I have a long weekend, so I am hoping to get the next one up really soon! Maybe. Hopefully. We will see.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters represented in this story that are from Street Fighter. The characters, some places, and some terminology are owned by Capcom.

First of all, let me apologize for the rather long hiatus on writing. I mentioned in a chapter that I found a job and that came first. Boy did it ever! With the happiness and joy of finally finding a job, I put in OT, made some money, made some friends. I ended up getting promoted a year later and now I supervise a whole team of people. Also, met a guy, and we have been together for a year now.

Fan fiction writing was many things to me. First it was my outlet to loneliness. Second, it was my way of getting away from reality. I needed it to get away from life.

I am not going to get into my entire life story, but I was unemployed, lonely and miserable, so fantasizing about imaginary guys was my outlet.

Not that I am unemployed, sad, or miserable, but I did a lot of catching up on my reading, found myself on and thought… Wow, I never finished it. I need to do that. With it being a year into my relationship, and work stress on the low, I find I have more time again. Boyfriend plays a few video games (I can totally kick his ass in Street Fighter though) and I write.

I'm going to be honest, its been almost 2 years since I have written ANYTHING. Also, I did outline my story, so I remember what is supposed to happen, but the flow may not be as good as it used to be in my head. It will pick back up at some point.

Thank you for your patience! I know its been a long time coming.

* * *

As expected, Sakura, Ryu and Ken won their fights with their opponents. Sakura finished off her rival with a rain of blue fire blasts as she was in the air. Ken was able to pull off an amazing Dragon Punch, continually jumping higher and higher, engulfed in red flames, which left the other guy motionless on the floor afterwards. Ryu, with what felt like more precision and grace, finalized his match with the Shinku Hurrican Kick. Even though this is a move I have been able to complete myself, Ryu's style made it seem like I was still only a beginner.

Vega also advanced to the next round. He remains as brutal as ever, since it is still unknown if his opponent is alive, having been slashed and gutted through his abdomen. I focused as much as I could through his fight with the unfortunate fellow to gauge his abilities, to see from the watchers angle on what it was that I was truly up against. My fight with him before was just to prove something to Ryu, and I know I dove into that unknowing as to what was to be expected. The only other fight I witnessed of him was short and mostly unlearning. Even after I fought him, did I fully understand what that madman was capable of?

Because of the loss with him, I could truly see where it was that I underestimated him in his speed. The fight I witnessed today almost matched exactly as his fight with me, except he didn't attempt to molest the mans face with his tongue as he did mine.

One thing I know for sure, I cannot let Sakura win. Vega has a sick satisfaction with harming his opponents, molesting the women he fights (or at least he tried with me), and I know he would show no remorse on killing a young girl after he has had his perverse fun with her. As a grown woman, I can handle his manners. I am unsure if Sakura would be the same.

Today is for sure another long day of fighting, and many of us left, because we have already had a bout today, look exhausted. Maybe it was luck that the first 4 matches were my group and I, hopefully giving us enough time to recover for the next round.

I do not look forward to fighting her, but I know Sakura is going to give it all she's got, and this may be my toughest fight thus far…

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RYU POV

Ken and I watch as our pupils enter the arena. Even though she is older and has much more experience with martial arts, her opponent has the upper hand on her abilities to harness her Ki. Although, Sakura does tend to unleash a large amount of energy, it is widely spaced, and not as effective as the concentrated smaller blasts of Renee. Still, Sakura had more of the natural ability to harness the energy, while Renee was the natural at skill and stance. I worry for the both of them.

"You know Renee will not let Sakura win." I say to Ken.

He grimaces and curls his lip. "I don't know, dude. They are pretty evenly matched. This could go either way."

"She won't let her win because of who she would have to face next."

Ken looks at the brackets. "You don't even know if Vega will win."

"He will."

Ken lets out a 'humpf.' "Well, I will just have to make sure she is prepared for it tomorrow when she win's this round with Renee." He sticks his tongue out at me.

"What are you prepared to do if Vega gets the upper hand with her? Are you going to stand by and watch her die?"

Ken's look goes from sarcastic to a scowl. "We have already told them there is no turning back. I have to let what happens, happen. What about you, are you going to interfere again? No offense, but you don't want to have a reputation. You have already done it once. Do it again, and you may not have any credibility in future tournaments. Your life mission goes out the window. Word would travel, you know it would."

I breath in and let out a deep sigh, "I know. At this moment I don't know what I would do. I have to wait and see."

We focus on the arena where the girls have already started circling each other. Renee makes the first move by attempting a sweep that Sakura back flips over. As she lands, she throws her first projectile at Renee. As usual, it is large, blue, an full of cold flame, and not easily dodged by Renee. Regardless, she blocks it with ease, and with no sign of pain showing in her form.

Just as I thought would happen, Sakura focuses on using Ki based attacks and Renee uses her hand to hand and close combat skills. I can feel how instead of performing the moves of the art, she focuses her Ki energy to certain parts of her body, either to enhance a punch or kick, or to reinforce herself to handle a blast from Sakura.

Sakura looks as if she is slowing down. Ken is also looking worried. Renee still looks mostly energized as Sakura unleashes more blasts, half turn kicks and running uppercuts. She looks like she is just waiting for the right time.

The right time arrives. As I hear Sakura yell "SHOOOKEN!" Renee successfully blocks the uppercut. As Sakura is flying through the air from her failed attempt at her special move, Renee jumps and spins. As I have seen it before, the whirlwind tornado from ground to ceiling appears. Sakura is hit with every spin and kick inside the vortex. Lightning shoots out of Renee with each contact hit. More lightning appears in the eye of the storm, striking the ground with a crackling sound.

Renee lands on her feet. Sakura, with the last kick to her ribs, lands forcefully on the arena floor. She moves around, rolling from her back to her side, but fails to get up. The countdown beings, then reaches to its end, with Sakura still unable to get up.

For the first time in a long time, I feel fear. I know what tomorrow brings. I can only hope that she is strong enough… fast enough… to beat Vega.

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This was not beta read. Also, I will likely come back to this and add more detail. Near the end it got late and I wanted to go to bed… but I wanted to publish something tonight.


End file.
